J. Bland-Hawthorn, S. C. Ellis, S. G. Leon-Saval, R. Haynes, M. M. Roth, H. -G. Löhmannsröben, A. J. Horton, J. -G. Cuby, T. A. Birks, J. S. Lawrence, P. Gillingham, S. D. Ryder, C. Trinh
A long-standing and profound problem in astronomy is the difficulty in
obtaining deep near-infrared observations due to the extreme brightness and
variability of the night sky at these wavelengths. A solution to this problem
is crucial if we are to obtain the deepest possible observations of the early
Universe since redshifted starlight from distant galaxies appears at these
wavelengths. The atmospheric emission between 1000 nm and 1800 nm arises almost
entirely from a forest of extremely bright, very narrow hydroxyl emission lines
that varies on timescales of minutes. The astronomical community has long
envisaged the prospect of selectively removing these lines, while retaining
high throughput between the lines. Here we demonstrate such a filter for the
first time, presenting results from the first on-sky tests. Its use on current
8m telescopes and future 30m telescopes will open up many new research avenues
in the years to come.
View original:
http://arxiv.org/abs/1112.1694
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