In a solar coronagraph, the most important component is an occulter to block the direct light from the disk of the sun. Because the intensity of the solar outer corona is 10−6 to 10−10 times of that of the solar disk (I⊙), it is necessary to minimize scattering at the optical elements and diffraction at the occulter. Using a Fourier optic simulation and a stray light test, we investigated the performance of a compact coronagraph that uses an external truncated-cone occulter without an internal occulter and Lyot stop. In the simulation, the diffracted light was minimized to the order of 7.6 × 10−10 I⊙ when the cone angle c was about 0.39◦. The performance of the cone occulter was then tested by experiment. The level of the diffracted light reached the order of 6 × 10−9 I⊙ at c = 0.40◦. This is sufficient to observe the outer corona without additional optical elements such as a Lyot stop or inner occulter. We also found the manufacturing tolerance of the cone angle to be 0.05◦, the lateral alignment tolerance was 45 μm, and the angular alignment tolerance was 0.043◦. Our results suggest that the physical size of coronagraphs can be shortened significantly by using a cone occulter.

The application of software engineering is not common in the development of astronomical observation system. While there were component-wise developments in the past, large-scale comprehensive system developments are more common in these days. In this study, current methodologies of development are reviewed to select a proper one for the development of astronomical observation system and the result of the application is presented. As the subject of this study, a project of operation software development for an astronomical observation system which runs on the ground is selected. And the output management technique based on Component Based Development which is one of the relatively recent methodologies has been applied. Since the nature of the system requires lots of arithmetic algorithms and it has great impact on the overall performance of the entire system, a prototype model is developed to verify major functions and performance. Consequently, it was possible to verify the compliance with the product requirements through the requirement tracing table and also it was possible to keep to the schedule. Besides, it was suggested that a few improvements could be possible based on the experience of the application of conventional output management technique. This study is the first application of the software development methodology in the domestic astronomical observation system area. The process and results of this study would contribute to the investigation for a more appropriate methodology in the area of similar system development.

The first Korean satellite laser ranging (SLR) system, Daedeok SLR station (DAEK station) was developed by Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI) in 2012, whose main objectives are space geodesy researches. In consequence, Korea became the 25th country that operates SLR system supplementing the international laser tracking network. The DAEK station is designed to be capable of 2 kHz laser ranging with precision of a few mm both in daytime and nighttime observation of satellites with laser retro-reflector array (LRA) up to the altitude of 25,000 km. In this study, characteristics and specifications of DAEK station are investigated and its data quality is evaluated and compared with International Laser Ranging Service (ILRS) stations in terms of single-shot ranging precision. The analysis results demonstrated that the DAEK station shows good ranging performance to a few mm precision. Currently, the DAEK station is under normal operations at KASI headquarters, however, it will be moved to Sejong city in 2014 to function as a fundamental station for space geodesy researches in combination with other space geodesy systems (GNSS, VLBI, DORIS, etc.).

In this study, a star identification algorithm which utilizes pivot patterns instead of apparent magnitude information was developed. The new star identification algorithm consists of two steps of recognition process. In the first step, the brightest star in a sensor image is identified using the orientation of brightness between two stars as recognition information. In the second step, cell indexes are used as new recognition information to identify dimmer stars, which are derived from the brightest star already identified. If we use the cell index information, we can search over limited portion of the star catalogue database, which enables the faster identification of dimmer stars. The new pivot algorithm does not require calibrations on the apparent magnitude of a star but it shows robust characteristics on the errors of apparent magnitude compared to conventional pivot algorithms which require the apparent magnitude information.

The Immersion Grating Infrared Spectrometer (IGRINS) is a near-infrared wide-band high-resolution spectrograph jointly developed by the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute and the University of Texas at Austin. IGRINS employs three HAWAII-2RG Focal Plane Array (H2RG FPA) detectors. We present the design and fabrication of the detector mount for the H2RG detector. The detector mount consists of a detector housing, an ASIC housing, a Field Flattener Lens (FFL) mount, and a support base frame. The detector and the ASIC housing should be kept at 65 K and the support base frame at 130 K. Therefore they are thermally isolated by the support made of GFRP material. The detector mount is designed so that it has features of fine adjusting the position of the detector surface in the optical axis and of fine adjusting yaw and pitch angles in order to utilize as an optical system alignment compensator. We optimized the structural stability and thermal characteristics of the mount design using computer-aided 3D modeling and finite element analysis. Based on the structural and thermal analysis, the designed detector mount meets an optical stability tolerance and system thermal requirements. Actual detector mount fabricated based on the design has been installed into the IGRINS cryostat and successfully passed a vacuum test and a cold test.