August 2024 Member Meeting Presentation

This meeting will be live at the Unitarian church and will also be available using the video conference utility Zoom. The meeting link will be emailed to members. For non-members if you would like to join the meeting, please send an email to asking for the meeting link and telling us a bit about your areas of interest in astronomy.

Deep Purple: LLNL UV and SWIR sensor for NASA CubeSat
Frank Ravizza

Abstract: Deep Purple is an optical sensor for NASA’s Platform Technology Demonstration program. It was designed and built by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) on internal funding in under one year. It will fly on a 6U “Trestles” Terran Orbital satellite called PTD-R with a primary mission to demonstrate new technologies. It features twin 8.5-cm aperture telescopes using LLNL’s patented monolithic optics technology that offers high-assurance of diffraction limited performance in a small volume. About the size of a shoe box, its twin apertures are sensitive to Short Wave Infrared (SWIR) and Ultraviolet (UV) light in the 1000-1700 nm and 230-310 nm bands. Its cameras are industrial machine vision commercial off-the-shelf using recent advances in image sensor technology from Sony. Within its 2U payload, Deep Purple also features an Nvidia Jetson ARM and GPU powered payload computer for onboard processing with AI/ML capabilities. The optics housings are fabricated in a compression molded carbon composite material replacing low thermal expansion Invar to provide a one-sixth reduction in mass. Its payload computer will be cooled by a high thermal conductivity carbon composite radiator fabricated using the same process by Patz Materials Technology. Deep Purple’s secondary mission will demonstrate low-cost UV astronomy, detection and tracking of near Earth objects, and ground observation in the SWIR.

Bio: Frank Ravizza is an optical engineer at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Currently, he is lead optical engineer for the Lab’s space program that builds optical sensors for space missions. His Lab career started in 2003 as a student intern. His history with the Lab extends much further back to when he would come to work with his father. As a young boy he made an impression by helping PhD physicists graph data on their Macintosh. At the end of a long day, he once asked, “Dad: You really get paid to do this?” Frank aspired to work on the National Ignition Facility, to play a role in the long standing and ambitious effort to achieve fusion ignition—using giant lasers. To Frank, there was nothing cooler—except for driving race cars and flying fighter jets. Both were career ambitions before settling into Lab life. The National Ignition Facility (or “NIF”) went on to make global headlines in 2022 for achieving ignition. This means here in Livermore, NIF demonstrated that fusion energy gain in a controlled process is possible, sparking renewed interest in fusion power plants. Upon graduating with a Bachelors in Optical Science in 2006 from UC Davis, Frank eagerly took the first opportunity to work on NIF as an optical metrology technician. However, Frank soon failed as technician when he began redesigning the Lab, inventing new instruments. One of which became the subject of his Master’s Thesis completed in 2013 from University of Arizona. This instrument is still vital to the operation of the NIF because it locates flaws on optics that act like microlenses and damage downstream optics by intensifying laser light. A decade later, when introduced to gravitational microlensing by an astrophysicist, Frank immediately recognized: Yes, I have experience designing instruments to find microlenses! In 2014, Frank was recruited internally to work on a high average power laser that promised to provide boost phase missile defense. Another really cool laser, but not for fusion—for shooting down missiles. Frank became beam quality modeling lead for this project. In 2019, Frank was again recruited internally, this time to the Lab’s rapidly growing space program. Today, Frank spends much of his time thinking of creative ways to capture data for astrophysics in the most efficient and cost-effective way possible.

June's meeting

Our June meeting will be our annual Summer BBQ. Plan on working up an appetite by helping to set-up and get the charcoal going at about 5:30pm. We will start eating around 6:00pm.

The club will provide hamburgers, hotdogs and vegetarian black bean burgers, along with a variety of toppings. If you wish, provide side dishes for your family, but not to be shared with members because of COVID.

December's meeting

This month is our Holiday dinner. We'll be opening the doors at 6:30 to set up the tables and chairs, and then the feast will begin at 7:00 PM. TVS will provide the drinks and paper/plasticware. In addition we will provide the main course for this month's holiday celebration, possibly turkey and/or tri-tip. Members are asked to bring a dish to share, and of course bring family and friends to share in the festivities. Based on the first letter of your last name members are asked to bring a dish to share:

• A-D Macaroni, Potato, Green or Fruit Salad
• E-J Vegetable or Beans
• K-O Appetizer
• P-Z Dessert

H2O Open House

Our next open house is May 25, 2024 for the club's dark sky site, Hidden Hill Observatory, aka H2O.

Anyone can come to our open houses, not just club members; but you cannot go there without an escort. We will meet at the corner of Mines and Tesla Roads at 6:00 PM, then caravan to the site on a drive that takes about 50 minutes. The admission is $3/car; please bring the exact amount. There is no gas on the way, so be sure to gas up before leaving. The site is essentially in the wilderness, so there is no electricity and water, and there are only a couple of pit toilets. Cell-phone reception is iffy at best. While there is a picnic table there, you really should bring your own chair. If you need to see what you are doing, bring a red LED flashlight, not a white-light flashlight. And use masking tape over your car door and interior lights, or pull the fuse. If you don't have a scope, you can always find someone who is willing to let you look through theirs. And don't forget to bring your binoculars. Expect to stay until about midnight and get back to Livermore at around 1:00 AM.

Member star parties at Tesla Vineyard

4/27/24

6/29/24

8/31/24

10/26/24

Tesla Vintner star parties are generally open to club members and their guests. The star parties will run from 6:00 PM until midnight. Tesla Vintners is in Livermore near the intersection of Tesla and Mines. For those new to the site, please use the unmarked west entrance (closest to Mines) to enter the winery grounds.