It is proposed the development and implementation of a High Speed Resolution Camera instrument. The basic principle
of this technique is to take several pictures of short exposure using different filters of an astronomical object of interest .
These images are subsequently processed using specialized software to remove aberrations from atmosphere and from
the instrument itself such as blur and scintillation among others.
In this paper are described electronic and control systems implemented for BERKUT instrument based on FPGA (Field
Programmable Gate Array) generated with VHDL description. An UART communication, using serial protocol, is used
with a friendly User Interface providing an easy way for the astronomer to choose between different lenses and different
filters for capturing the images. All the movements are produced by stepper motors that are driven by a circuit that
powers all the electronics. The camera and the lenses are placed into a linear positioner with the help of a stepper motor
which give us repeatable movements for positioning these optical components.
Besides it is planned to integrate in the same system a pipeline for image data reduction to have one sturdy system that
could fulfill any astronomer needs in the usage of this technique. With this instrument we pretend to confirm the
Hipparcos catalogue of binary stars besides finding exoplanets. This technique requires more simple optical equipment
and it is less sensitive to environmental noise, making it cheaper and provides good quality and great resolution images
for scientific purposes. This equipment will be installed on different 1-m class telescopes in Mexico1 and probably other
countries which makes it a wide application instrument.
Several factors make observational astronomy difficult for astronomers; one of them is the atmosphere. The light that a
star emits is refracted when it goes through the earth's atmosphere; the result of this is that the image of a punctual star is
not what the physics would lead us to expect. At the Instituto de Astronomia of the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de
México (IA-UNAM) an instrument has been developed called "Berkut", which uses a high resolution technique to
improve these effects and obtain interesting and valuable scientific studies.
In this paper we present the mechanical reengineering and acceptance test of Berkut. This instrument was design for
taking images of high resolution. Essentially, it is composed by a set basic optics which is aligned and in focus with a 1-
meter class telescope. It has its own electronic components for controlling remotely a filter wheel; that allows the
exchange of the filters according to the requirements of the observer, a couple of objectives mounted in a translation
stage, and a CCD camera for acquiring several images per second that are used in the speckle interferometry technique.
A project like Berkut needs to be multidisciplinary; astronomy, engineering, optics, mechanics, electronics, and image
processing are some of the areas of knowledge used.
Berkut will be used in the telescope of the Observatorio Astronomico Nacional in Tonantzintla, located in the state of
Puebla, Mexico, but it can be used in any telescope 1 meter class. It is pretended to build another Berkuts for being used
simultaneously in different telescopes, so it is important to keep the costs as low as possible. With this instrument we
pretend to confirm the Hipparcos catalogue of binary stars besides finding exoplanets.
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