We are collaborating with the University of Arizona Steward Observatory to upgrade the MIRAC instrument with a new Geosnap detector that we have been testing in our lab. This new capability, MIRAC-5, will be commissioned with the new MAPS adaptive optics system under development for the MMT in Arizona, in late 2022.

We are committed to undertaking a science program on the MMT with plans to move MIRAC-5 to the Magellan Clay telescope for use with the MagAO system in the future. To learn more about our plans you can watch this video from IR2020, presented by Michael Meyer.

After commissioning, we plan to procure an annular grove phase mask (AGPM) for high contrast imaging (utilizing an optimized pupil mask and implementing the QACITS algorithm to maintain target position on the corongraph in the focal plane).

Watch this space for new links including a paper presented by graduate student Rory Bowens at the 2022 SPIE in Montreal, Canada.