OAJ - Observatorio Astrofísico de Javalambre

OAJ Image

OAJ Image

The Observatorio Astrofísico de Javalambre (OAJ) is a scientific facility located at the Sierra de Javalambre in Teruel, Spain, particularly conceived and constructed by the Centro de Estudios de Física del Cosmos de Aragón (CEFCA) for carrying out large sky astronomical surveys. The OAJ mainly consists of two professional telescopes with large fields of view (FoV) and seeing-limited image quality all over their entire FoVs: the 2.5m Javalambre Survey Telescope, JST250, a large-etendue telescope with a FoV of 3 deg diameter, and the 80cm Javalambre Auxiliary Survey Telescope, JAST80, with a FoV of 2deg.
Both telescopes are equipped with panoramic cameras, state-of-the-art, large format CCDs and unique sets of optical filters suited to survey the Universe in an unprecedented way all over the optical spectral range.

The OAJ Project started in 2010, comprising not only the design and construcción of the two above telescopes but of the whole civil work, related installations and infrastructures for the proper operation of the telescopes. This includes, among others, a seeing DIMM monitor, a 40cm telescope for robotic determination of the optical extinction curve, an all-sky extinction camera, a residence, three control rooms, laboratories and workshops, a data center, an AIV clean room, a coating vacuum chamber for mirror alluminization (the latter to be ready by end 2015), and all the general installations for the running of the observatory. It all is connected by underground tunnels. In 2014, the OAJ was finalized and declared Spanish ICTS (Instalación Científico-Técnica Singular) by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness.

The OAJ is managed and operated by CEFCA, a foundation of public interest of the Departamento de Industria e Innovación of the Government of Aragón that was created in 2008 to define and construct the OAJ, as well as to carry out and promote its scientific exploitation. In this sense, J-PLUS and J-PAS are the two first key surveys that are defined to be conducted at the OAJ in the period 2015-2022. The CEFCA data center, UPAD, with capacity for 6.1 PB of storage, 3.3 TB of RAM and 406 cores, complete the OAJ Project at the city of Teruel, allowing to process and storage the data gathered with the above surveys.

A brief historical summary of the progress of the OAJ Project since its beginning is presented below.

May
 
 

Instrumentation
J-PAS Pathfinder confirms the optical quality of the JST250.

 
February
 
 

Instrumentation
First light of J-PAS Pathfinder instrument installed at JST250 Javalambre telescope .

 
August
 
 

UPAD
Adquisitions of new hardware systems to upgrade the scientific computing cluster of CEFCA. With the acquired systems the computing capacity is increassed in 400 cores and the storage capacity in 380 TB raw.

 
June
 
 

Instrumentation
Final acceptance of JPCam's cryogenic camera (scientific instrument of JST250) telescope at e2V headquarters (Chelmsford, UK).

 
May
 
 

OAJ Civil work and facilities
The aluminizing vacuum chamber and the cleaning unit arrive at OAJ after the final acceptance tests at the factory.

 
March
 
 

OAJ Civil work and facilities
The OAJ aluminizing vacuum chamber has passed successfully the acceptance test at the factory. So it is going to be packaged and sent to the OAJ where it will arrive in early May.

 
February
 
 

JAST80
An image of the Pinwheel Galaxy (M101) taken at OAJ with JST/T80 telescope and the T80Cam camera. The image consists of a composition of 19 different images in the Sloan g, r and i filters and uJAVA, J0515 and J0660 filters, with a total integration of 156s in filter g, 250s in filter r, 78s in filter i, 621s in filter uJAVA, 123s in filter J0515 and 810s in filter J0660 and less than 1.2" of average PSF. The images were taken on 4th February 2016.

JST250
The Centro de Estudios de Física del Cosmos de Aragón (CEFCA) has proceeded with the final acceptance of the JST250 telescope at the Observatorio Astrofísico de Javalambre (OAJ). Optical fine tuning of the system during Final Acceptance tests provides images of 0.15” FWHM using “lucky imaging” techniques.

JAST80 / Instrumentation
The Observatorio Astrofísico de Javalambre (OAJ) has announced its first call for proposals for observing with T80Cam, the scientific, panoramic camera installed at JAST80 telescope.

 
January
 
 

Instrumentation
The JPAS-Pathfinder (first scientific camera of JST250 telescope) integration process is started at OAJ (Observatorio Astrofísico de Javalambre).

Instrumentation
The actuator system of JPCam arrives at OAJ. After its arrival in mid January, the engineering team has carried out the integration of the system at the observatory in order to start with the verification and fine-tune processes, first in the clean room and, finally, in the JST250 telescope.

Instrumentation
The filter and shutter unit (FSU) and filter tray assemblies of JPCam (scientific instrument of JST250 telescope) have been accepted in the Vacuum Projects (Valencia) and Jaguar Precision Machine (New Mexico, EEUU) headquarters.

 
December
 
 

Instrumentation
Half of J-PAS filters have been received and are now at OAJ (Observatorio Astrofísico de Javalambre).

Instrumentation
The cryogenic subsystem of JPCam (scientific instrument of JST250 telescope) is now integrated and in testing phase in e2v headquarters (Chelmsford).

 
November
 
 

JAST80 / Instrumentation
J-PLUS survey observations with T80Cam@JAST80 have started after an intense period of fine tuning and optimization tasks developed by the OAJ/CEFCA Team. J-PLUS is the main project to be carried out for the next three years with the T80Cam panoramic camera installed at the JAST80 telescope at OAJ.

JAST80
An image of the Triangulum Galaxy (M33) taken at OAJ with JST/T80 telescope and the T80Cam camera. The image consists of a composition of 46 different images in the Sloan g, r and i filters and J0660 filter, with a total integration of 440s in filter g, 410s in filter r, 460s in filter i and 3840s in filter J0660 and less than 1" of average PSF. The images were taken on 11th, 14th and 15th November 2015.

OAJ Civil work and facilities
Final assembly of the OAJ aluminizing vacuum chamber. After having passed successfully the preliminary and final design reviews, the manufacturing of the OAJ aluminizing vacuum chamber and the procurement of its subsystems started in spring 2015. The vacuum chamber is the system designed to realuminize the mirrors of the OAJ telescopes every time it is necessary. In November 2015 the chamber is fully assembled in factory, as it can be seen in the figure. The acceptance tests are expected to be conducted in December 2015 - January 2016.

 
October
 
 

JST250
Last September 2015, the JST250 telescope at the Observatorio Astrofísico de Javalambre passed successfully the Provisional Acceptance test review. This milestone represents a big step forward for the completion of the project, only pending the Final Acceptance tests that shall be completed in the next weeks.

 
September
 
 

UPAD
Acquisition of EDAM. This is the system that will provide access to the data obtained in the OAJ for the scientific community. EDAM database servers will provide access to the information of the astronomical objects collected in the J-PLUS and J-PAS Science Databases. Through EDAM dedicated web servers access will be provided to the original data obtained by the OAJ telescopes and to the images and files processed and validated by the UPAD.

 
June
 
 

Instrumentation
The 12 J-PLUS filters have been succesfully integrated into T80Cam (scientific camera of JAST80 telescope) at Observatorio Astrofísico de Javalambre

UPAD
The UPAD main storage and processing systems already deployed

 
May
 
 

Instrumentation
JPCam (scientific instrument of CEFCA's JST250 telescope) engineering focal plane fully integrated at e2v

 
March
 
 

JAST80
An image of the Hercules Globular Cluster (M13) taken at OAJ with JST/T80 telescope and the T80Cam camera. The image consists of a composition of different images in the Sloan g and r filters and white light, with a total integration of 40 min and 1.7" of average PSF. The images were taken on 7th March 2015.

An image of the Bode's Galaxy (M81) taken at OAJ with JST/T80 telescope and the T80Cam camera. The image consists of a composition of different images in the Sloan g and r filters and white light, with a total integration of 50 min and 1.07" of average PSF. The images were taken on 6th March 2015.

An image of the Cigar Galaxy (M82) taken at OAJ with JST/T80 telescope and the T80Cam camera. The image consists of a composition of different images in the Sloan g and r filters and white light, with a total integration of 50 min and 1.07" of average PSF. The images were taken on 6th March 2015.

Instrumentation
First light of T80Cam, the scientific camera of the CEFCA's JAST80 telescope

 
February
 
 

JAST80
In 2015, February 20th, after a complete process of verification and final acceptance tests, the handover of the JAST80 telescope by CEFCA has been made effective. The telescope is complete and operative according to the requirements, hosting already T80Cam, which is undergoing characterization, commissioning and fine tuning tests.

 
January
 
 

Instrumentation
The T80Cam camera has been succesfully integrated into the JAST80 telescope at OAJ (Observatorio Astrofísico de Javalambre)

OAJ Civil work and facilities
End of the civil work. Legal acceptance of the civil work of the Observatorio Astrofísico de Javalambre.

 
December
 
 

JAST80
High resolution image taken by JAST80 telescope.

Instrumentation
CEFCA accepts the final T80Cam filters. These filters are the result of a large R&D&I process.

UPAD
Reception of the datacenter room conditioning works. The two CRAC systems, two UPSs, and an generator provides 70KW of usable power for IT equipment.

UPAD
Science computing cluster during last phase of installation. The system consists on 5 nodes with a total of 100 processing cores. The initial storage capacity is 24 TB.

 
September
 
 

JST250
JST250 completely integrated with the final optical elements. Dummies, used to previously verify telescope mechanics and control, have been replaced by the primary mirror (M1) (2.6m diameter), the secondary mirror (M2) (1.2m diameter) and the field corrector composed by three lenses with 50-60cm diameters and aspherical surfaces with steep slopes. A lifting platform has been used to transport the optical elements and their mechanical supports from the OAJ loading dock, located in the basement of the JST250 building below the ground level of the observatory, where dismantling and integration tasks were done, to the telescope plant. This platform, integrated in the JST250 building, has a capacity up to 10 tons and has been specially designed and made to this task.

 
August
 
 

JAST80
A Dumbbell Nebula image taken in the OAJ with JAST80 telescope and FLC80 verification camera. The image consists of a composition of different images in the Sloan g and r filters, with a total integration of 1 hour and 30 min and 1" of average PSF. The images were taken in July 2014.

UPAD
Acquisition of the storage, core network and processing systems for UPAD/T250. The storage solution consist on a Netapp Cluster Ontap with 1.1 PB net capacity, a Spectra T950 robotic tape library with 5PB. The core network consist on 4 Juniper's virtual chassis with 40GbE uplinks. The processing system consist on 17 Fujitsu nodes each one with 24 cores, 192GB RAM and 4 TB internal storage, together the processing system amount to 406 processing cores.

 
 
July
 
 

JAST80
A moon image taken in the OAJ with JAST80 telescope and FLC80 verification camera. The image consists of a composition of 200 different images with 0.04 s of exposition in the Sloan u filter, taken during the night between 13rd and 14th of June 2014.

JAST80
A M106 galaxy image taken in the OAJ with JAST80 telescope and FLC80 verification camera. The image consists of a color composition of different images in the Sloan r, i and z filters, with a total integration of 30 min in every filter. The images were taken during the night between 6th and 7th of June 2014.

 
June
 
 

JST250
JST250 completely integrated and verified, with dummies for the optical elements and the verification camera for engineering first light.

JST250
M1 primary mirror of the JST250 telescope arrives at OAJ.

JAST80
Development and implementation of active optic solutions for JAST80.
Once the field corrector of lenses and the verification camera FLC80 are installed at the telescope, the main tasks concentrate on implementing the procedure for the fine alignment and automatic focussing of the JAST80. Due to its large field of view, 2deg in diameter, the secondary mirror of the JAST80 is active by means of an hexapod that allows corrections in focus, decentering X-Y and tip/tilt X-Y, to guarantee the image quality of the telescope all over the field of view and at any position and temperature of the system. CEFCA has developed a specific software to correct in real time the image quality of the JAST80. The basis of the code is wavefront curvature sensing. It works as it follows. The telescope takes two consecutive defocused (intra/extra) images of a field of stars; the resulting donuts for each star are identified, and are decomposed as a function of a Zernike basis. With this information, and having calibrated previously the sensitivity of the hexapod movements in terms of these Zernike terms (the so called inversion matrix), the code computes the required hexapod corrections to be applied to M2 to obtain homogeneous and high quality images all over the focal plane. The attached figures illustrate two examples of the outputs of the code: a snapshot of the donut selection for a given defocused star in the field, and the wavefront solution for this configuration in the space of Zernike coefficients.

 
May
 
 

JAST80
Field corrector installed at JAST80. After the mount acceptance and accurate alignment of M1 and M2, the three lenses field corrector of the telescope has been installed. The image shows the field corrector in the central hole of M1, just above the instrumentation anchorage level in the cassegrain focus.

 
April
 
 

JST250
M2 secondary mirror of JST250 after being alluminized.

JAST80
FLC80 integration at JAST80.

OAJ Civil work and facilities
OAJ airview.

 
March
 
 

JST250
The JST250 telescope assembled at OAJ's dome. Still lacking M1 rotator and M1 cell. The image shows the JST250 assembled with the dummy optics awaiting the arrival of the final optical elements.

JST250
Barrel of JST250 field corrector lenses. The field corrector is totally finished, including anti-reflecting covering of the three lenses' surfaces. First image shows the barrel opened. It displays the first lens of the field corrector L1, which has a 60 cm diameter with a complex aspheric geometry on both surfaces. The serrurier support structure provides the anchorage to the system of the two other lenses, L2-L3, which are closer to each other and, in this case, inside the barrel. Second image shows the field corrector completely closed, as it will be installed in the optical path of JST250.

JAST80
Integration of the FLC80 filter wheel.

Instrumentation
FSU during its assembly, integration and verification phase (AIV) at CEFCA's laboratory.

Instrumentation
T80Cam cryocamera arrival at CEFCA's laboratory.

Instrumentation
JPCam focal plane cold plate at e2v premises. A science CCD is shown for reference.

OAJ Civil work and facilities
OAJ Civil Work is almost finished. This image shows OAJ panoramic view.

 
February
 
 

JST250
JST250 primary mirror M1 during the process of glueing of the support pads on its lower surface in the factory (AMOS, Belgium). The mirror is in the latest computer-controlled polishing phase (CCP), very close to achieve the optical quality requirement.

JST250
Support pads fixed to the non optical mirror surface. Those pads are the point of contact with the whiffle tree, which keeps the position of the mirror once assembled in its cell.

JST250
JST250 secondary mirror M2, 1.2 m diameter, finished at AMOS (Belgium), still not aluminized. The image displays the mirror and its cell with (6x3) 18 points of contact of the whiffle tree structure.

Instrumentation
JPCam actuator system during its integration at NTE-Sener headquarters.

 
January
 
 

OAJ Civil work and facilities
OAJ General Control Room.

UPAD
Rack with the UPAD/T80 storage system (100 TB), computing nodes and database nodes installed at CEFCA's laboratory. The rack also contains the nodes to manage the data transfer from the OAJ.

 
December
 
 

OAJ Civil work and facilities
JAST80 building, with its 6.2 m diameter dome, is completed with an annexed lobby for maintenance and storage tasks. JAST80 is connected with JST250 platform by an access road.

UPAD
Rack with the data transfer nodes, tape libraries and disk storage prepared at CEFCA headquarters to be transported to the Observatory.

 
November
 
 

JST250
Integration tasks of JST250 telescope in the interior of its dome. Principal parts of the telescope were brought into the dome through the main slit with a 25 m crane. The images show the sequence of introduction of the interphase structure and anchoring with the telescope's concrete pier.

 
October
 
 

Instrumentation
Delivery of the e2v CCD for T80Cam.

 
September
 
 

OAJ Civil work and facilities
Exterior finishes of the JST250 building.

 
August
 
 

OAJ Civil work and facilities
Installation works of JST250 dome.

 
July
 
 

OAJ Civil work and facilities
Assembly of JST250 dome.

 
June
 
 

JST250
L3 lens of JST250 field corrector (the closer one to Cassegrain focus) finished and assembled in its support. L3, which is 50 cm aproximately, is concave with big curvature. It can be observed the serrurier's structure in the support of the lens. It will be connected to the support of L2, thus guaranteeing a better stability of the system.

 
January
 
 

Instrumentation
1110S camera with an engineering CCD mounted during its manufacture at Spectral Instruments premises.

 
December
 
 

JST250
JST250 during the mechanical acceptance test.

JAST80
Design and manufacture of FLC80, the First Light Camera of JAST80. CEFCA has designed and has manufactured a First Light Camera, FLC80, for the commisioning and scientific verification of JAST80. The camera is a Proline 16803, with a Kodak KAF-16803 4096-by-4096 9?m pixel CCD detector, which provides a 34-by-34 arcmin field in the cassegrain focus of the telescope. The camera has a focuser (green) and a filter wheel with the capacity to 7 square filters of 50x50 mm (red). The entrance window above the detector has been replaced by a new one with optical power in one of its faces, designed by CEFCA in order to optimize the image quality in the entire JAST80 focal plane. Also, CEFCA has designed and has manufactured a Serrurier type mechanical support in order to anchor the FLC80 to the telescope. It includes the required counterweights in order to simulate the expected mass and center of gravity of the T80Cam. The image shows several views of FLC80, its anchorage serrurier structure and the counterweights (grey) together.

OAJ Civil work and facilities
View of the JAST80 building, the monitor enclosure and the general services plant.

OAJ Civil work and facilities
Main JST250 building, maintenance annex and mirror alumnization area (exterior finishes still pending).

 
November
 
 

OAJ Civil work and facilities
Top floor of the JST250 building (telescope floor) during construction.

 
September
 
 

JST250
JST250 fully assembled, with the verification camera counterweight and dummies simulating the optical elements.

 
August
 
 

JAST80
Integration of the mirrors onto the JAST80 structure at OAJ.

OAJ Civil work and facilities
Beginning of the JST250 building tronco-conical pier foundation work.

 
June
 
 

JST250
JST250 during the rotator and general cabling integration. The telescope is integrated with dummies that simulate the shape and weight of the mirrors.

JAST80
JAST80 optics acceptance after final mirror polishing and aluminization.

OAJ Civil work and facilities
OAJ airview.

 
May
 
 

JST250
L3 during optical tests.

JAST80
JAST80's arrival at OAJ and mechanical structure assembly works at the dome.

 
April
 
 

JST250
JST250 under integration process, during a progress review meeting with CEFCA staff members.

 
March
 
 

JST250
JST250 during the assembly phase at AMOS' headquarters. In the center of the image, the telescope ground interface structure, the fork, the centerpiece, the serrurier structure, the M2 top ring and the altitude and azimuth drives and bearings are already in place. At the right bottom of the image, the M1 cell completely assembled before integration under the centerpiece.

 
January
 
 

JAST80
JAST80 during AIV phase. Main mechanical parts are fully assembled at ASTELCO’s headquarters.

 
December
 
 

JST250
The M2 hexapod, manufactured by Symétrie (France).

JST250
L2, one of the three lenses of the JST250 field corrector, at the testing optical bench. The field corrector is being manufactured by L3-Tinsley (USA).

JAST80
The optical tube assembly, the Serrurier truss, the front ring, the 4 spider vanes and the M2 unit are assembled together.

OAJ Civil work and facilities
View of the JAST80 building, dome and the monitor enclosure.

 
November
 
 

JAST80
The optical tube assembly and the Serrurier structure of the JAST80 are manufactrured in parallel for the T80-North (Observatorio Astrofísico de Javalambre) and T80-South (Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory).

OAJ Civil work and facilities
The JAST80 building is isolated with galvanized steel panels to minimize the thermal inertia of the main concrete structure.

OAJ Civil work and facilities
The monitor building consist of a semicilindrical enclosure made of steel with two openings which can open independently.

OAJ Civil work and facilities
General installations and supplies are finalised inside the JAST80 building.

OAJ Civil work and facilities
Operators working on the fine tuning of the monitor enclosure.

OAJ Civil work and facilities
Underground tunnels connect all the buildings at the OAJ, both for human use and the optimal maintenance of the installations.

 
October
 
 

JST250
M2 at the Hindle sphere optical metrology test tower setup, at L3-Brashear (USA) premises. The M2 mirror is located at the bottom loaded on the metrology support. The interferometer assembly with the null lens is located above it at the top of the tower. The Hindle sphere is located at mid-height pointing downward toward the M2 mirror. A laser tracer, at the right of the picture, is used to monitor spacings between the various optics and test optical axis alignment.

JST250
The JST250 alt-azimuthal fork.

JST250
Parts of the M1 whiffle tree.

JAST80
The JAST80 mount and the main RA and DEC axes.

 
September
 
 

JAST80
The field corrector of three spherical lenses of fused silica.

OAJ Civil work and facilities
The JAST80 dome, a 6.24m diameter dome manufactured by Ash Dome (Illinois, EEUU) is assembled on top of the JAST80 building.

 
July
 
 

OAJ Civil work and facilities
Works in progress for the monitor enclosure and the JAST80 building.

 
May
 
 

OAJ Civil work and facilities
Preliminary acceptance tests of the monitor enclosure at the factory.

 
December
 
 

JST250
The M1 blank under polishing process at AMOS headquarters.

 
November
 
 

JST250
The M1 blank arrives AMOS headquarters in Liege (Belgium). The blank is made of Zerodur, a glass ceramic by SCHOTT (Germany) with nearly null thermal expansion. The blank weights 2.4 tons and has an outer diameter of 2.64m.

JAST80
The M1 blank (Zerodur by SCHOTT; Germany) in polishing process at AMOS headquarters in Liege (Belgium).

 
October
 
 

OAJ Civil work and facilities
OAJ airview.