• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.57.3-58
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• 2017

Single Point Diamond Turning (SPDT) is a cost-effective technique to fabricate metallic mirrors. In particular, the servo-assisted diamond turning option is highly useful for the fabrication of freeform surfaces. However, the SPDT process leaves periodic tool marks on machined mirror surfaces, leading to undesirable diffraction effect, as well as the deviation of input beam. In order to solve this problem, we propose new SPDT machining conditions to minimize tool marks. We will also show the results from optical measurement and Power Spectral Density (PSD) analysis to evaluate the expectable performance for applications in wide field infrared telescopes.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.36 no.spc1
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• pp.145-149
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• 2003

LIST is the Lyman-$\alpha$ Imaging Solar Telescope, a project funded by the Korean government to fly on the second Korean Science and Technology research Satellite (STSat-2) due to launch in December 2005. The Principal Investigator is Dr. Minhwan Jang of Kyung-Hee University and of the Space Payload Research Center (SPARC), a consortium of Korean universities and institutions formed to develop scientific research projects in space. The purpose of the LIST project is to design, build, and operate an instrument on STSat-2 which will make images of the Sun from Earth orbit at the wavelength of the Hydrogen Lyman-a emission line at 121.6 nm. LIST has a simple design concept comprised of a small telescope to image the full disk of the Sun onto a CCD detector and a set of filters to isolate the 121.6 nm wavelength.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.55 no.1
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• pp.11-22
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• 2022

We introduce the Transformable Reflective Telescope (TRT) kit that applies an aluminum profile as a base plate for precise, stable, and lightweight optical system. It has been utilized for optical surface measurements, developing alignment and baffle systems, observing celestial objects, and various educational purposes through Research & Education projects. We upgraded the TRT kit using the aluminum profile and truss and isogrid structures for a high-end optical test device that can be used for prototyping of precision telescopes or satellite optical systems. Thanks to the substantial aluminum profile and lightweight design, mechanical deformation by self-weight is reduced to maximum 67.5 ㎛, which is an acceptable misalignment error compared to its tolerance limits. From the analysis results of non-linear vibration simulations, we have verified that the kit survives in harsh vibration environments. The primary mirror and secondary mirror modules are precisely aligned within 50 ㎛ positioning error using the high accuracy surface finished aluminum profile and optomechanical parts. The cross laser module helps to align the secondary mirror to fine-tune the optical system. The TRT kit with the precision aluminum mirror guarantees high quality optical performance of 5.53 ㎛ Full Width at Half Maximum (FWHM) at the field center.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.55 no.4
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• pp.87-97
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• 2022

Polarimetric measurements of the lunar surface from lunar orbit soon will be available via Wide-Field Polarimetric Camera (PolCam) onboard the Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO), which is planned to be launched in mid 2022. To provide calibration data for the PolCam, we are conducting speckle polarimetric measurements of the nearside of the Moon from the Earth's ground. It appears that speckle imaging of the Moon for scientific purposes has not been attempted before, and there is need for a procedure to create a "lucky image" from a number of observed speckle images. As a first step of obtaining calibration data for the PolCam from the ground, we search for the best sharpness measure for lunar surfaces. We then calculate the minimum number of speckle images and the number of images to be shift-and-added for higher resolution (sharpness) and signal-to-noise ratio.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.54 no.3
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• pp.89-102
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• 2021

Even in an era where 8-meter class telescopes are common, small telescopes are considered very valuable research facilities since they are available for rapid follow-up or long term monitoring observations. To maximize the usefulness of small telescopes in Korea, we established the SomangNet, a network of 0.4-1.0 m class optical telescopes operated by Korean institutions, in 2020. Here, we give an overview of the project, describing the current participating telescopes, its scientific scope and operation mode, and the prospects for future activities. SomangNet currently includes 10 telescopes that are located in Australia, USA, and Chile as well as in Korea. The operation of many of these telescopes currently relies on operators, and we plan to upgrade them for remote or robotic operation. The latest SomangNet science projects include monitoring and follow-up observational studies of galaxies, supernovae, active galactic nuclei, symbiotic stars, solar system objects, neutrino/gravitational-wave sources, and exoplanets.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.47 no.6
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• pp.201-207
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• 2014

We report the development of solar flux receivers operating at 2.8 GHz to monitor solar radio activity. Radio waves from the sun are amplified, filtered, and then transmitted to a power meter sensor without frequency down-conversion. To measure solar flux, a calibration scheme is designed with a noise source, an ambient load, and a hot load at $100^{\circ}C$. The receiver is attached to a 1.8 m parabolic antenna in Icheon, owned by National Radio Research Agency, and observation is being conducted during day time on a daily basis. We compare the solar fluxes measured for last seven months with solar fluxes obtained by DRAO in Penticton, Canada, and by the Hiraiso solar observatory in Japan, and finally establish equations to convert observed flux to the so-called Penticton flux with an accuracy better than 3.2 sfu.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.51 no.4
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• pp.111-117
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• 2018

A numerical method is proposed to calculate the response of detectors measuring particle energies from incident isotropic fluxes of electrons and positive ions. The isotropic flux is generated by injecting particles moving radially inward on a hypothetical, spherical surface encompassing the detectors. A geometric projection of the field-of-view from the detectors onto the spherical surface allows for the identification of initial positions and momenta corresponding to the clear field-of-view of the detectors. The contamination of detector responses by particles penetrating through, or scattering off, the structure is also similarly identified by tracing the initial positions and momenta of the detected particles. The relative contribution from the contaminating particles is calculated using GEANT4 to obtain the geometric factor of the instrument as a function of the energy. This calculation clearly shows that the geometric factor is a strong function of incident particle energies. The current investigation provides a simple and decisive method to analyze the instrument geometric factor, which is a complicated function of contributions from the anticipated field-of-view particles, together with penetrating or scattered particles.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.56 no.2
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• pp.293-299
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• 2023

The Wide-Angle Polarimetric Camera (PolCam) is installed on the Korea's lunar orbiter, Danuri, which launched on August 5, 2022. The mission objectives of PolCam are to construct photometric maps at a wavelength of 336 nm and polarization maps at 461 and 748 nm, with a phase angle range of 0°-135° and a spatial resolution of less than 100 m. PolCam is an imager using the push-broom method and has two cameras, Cam 1 and Cam 2, with a viewing angle of 45° to the right and left of the spacecraft's direction of orbit. We conducted performance tests in a laboratory setting before installing PolCam's flight model on the spacecraft. We analyzed the CCD's dark current, flat-field frame, spot size, and light flux. The dark current was obtained during thermal / vacuum test with various temperatures and the flat-field frame data was also obtained with an integrating sphere and tungsten light bulb. We describe the calibration method and results in this study.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.56.4-57
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• 2015

We present the optical design and a sensitivity analysis for a wide field of view (FOV) instrument operating at UV and IR wavelengths. The ongoing investigation is performed in collaboration with Omnisys Instruments (Sweden) and focuses on a telluric-limb-viewing instrument that will fly in a low Earth orbit to study mesospheric wave structures over a wide range of horizontal scales in the altitude range 80 - 100 km. The instrument has six wavelength channels which consist of 4 channels of IR and 2 of UV. We are proposing an optical design based on three mirror aplanatic off-axis reflective system. The entrance pupil diameter and effective focal length are 45 mm and 270 mm, respectively. The FOV is $5.5^{\circ}{\times}1^{\circ}$ and the secondary mirror is set for stop. The optical specification is required to have an encircled energy of at least 80 % within a diameter of 21 um. We performed sensitivity analysis for the longest wavelength of 772 nm in consideration of the diffraction limit of system. The results show that tolerance limits for positions and angles of the mirrors are not very sensitive compared with typical error budgets of manufacturing and assembling process. The secondary mirror has the most sensitive tolerance for surface figure of 250 nm in root-mean-square.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.56.4-57
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• 2017

The Schwarzschild-Chang off-axis telescope is a "linear astigmatism-free" confocal system. The telescope comprises two pieces of aluminum-alloy freeform mirrors that are fabricated with diamond turning machine (DTM) process. We designed optomechanical structures where optical components in the telescope system can be adjustable on a linear stage. Optomechanical deformation caused by the weight of system itself and its temperature variation is analyzed by the finite element analysis (FEA). The results show that the deformation is estimated in the tolerance range. For the optic-axis alignment of telescope system, three-point alignment (TPA) method is chosen. The TPA method uses three parallel lasers and a plane mirror. Point source images were taken from collimated light and field observation. The performance of optical system was tested by point spread function and aberration measurement of the point sources.