as a child peering through her toy telescope texas a&m university graduate student ting li was fascinated by the moon and constellations not so much by their cosmic beauty but about why they exist in the first place the sky always seemed so beautiful to me li said but outer space that has always been a mystery now working toward her doctorate in astronomy as a member of texas a&ms charles r 62 and judith g munnerlyn astronomical laboratory li has developed her own instrument designed to help scientists understand more about the cosmos lis breakthrough device dubbed the atmospheric transmission monitoring camera or atmcam provides an innovative and efficient way of measuring subtle changes in the light that is constantly moving throughout the atmosphere the resulting data will used by scientists as part of the dark energy survey a five-year investigation to understand the mysterious expansion of the universe lis atmcam located at the cerro tololo inter-american observatory in chile is housed in a mini-observatory that she and a munnerlyn lab team of undergraduate researchers hand-built completely computer-automated and operating on a script programmed by li the device is composed of a row of four high-power telescopes mounted with four charge-coupled device (ccd) cameras each with a different filter atmcam the creation of texas a&m astronomy graduate student ting li (above) measures subtle light changes in the atmosphere the resulting data will figure big into the five-year dark energy survey which is seeking answers to one of the biggest mysteries in astrophysics why the universes expansion is accelerating atmcam is housed in a mini-observatory hand-built on-site by li (second from right) and a munnerlyn astronomical laboratory team supervised by lab manager jennifer marshall (far left) and including (from left) ctio staff astronomer david james nicholas mondrik and dan nagasawa on clear evenings the mini-observatorys seven-foot diameter dome opens and atmcam aims at a target star in the night sky each of its four cameras will capture a unique image of the wavelengths of light transmitted by the star by observing specific features of the four images li can track changes in the atmosphere providing preliminary data that des scientists then will use to calibrate the photometry of type ia supernova considered the best cosmological standard candles for measuring cosmic distances taken as part of the survey the scientific objectives of the dark energy survey require measurements of the brightness of stars and galaxies with unprecedented precision said texas a&m astronomer darren depoy director of the munnerlyn lab and himself the project scientist for the worlds largest digital camera the 570-megapixel dark energy camera (decam) the earths atmosphere absorbs scatters and otherwise compromises such measurements fortunately tings approach removes one of the worst offending effects the variability of the transmission of light through the atmosphere with time in a robust manner the added precision allows for significantly better distance determinations which in turn substantially improves our ability to measure the effects of dark energy on the universe as it stands lis atmcam will be in operation at least for the duration of the survey but she believes it could have a much longer shelf-life not to mention broader appeal for starters any researchers interested in observing variable stars and exoplanets may find atmcam useful in determining if any irregularities are due to the star itself or to the atmosphere in general anyone interested in precision photometry can find use for atmcam li said earths atmosphere is constantly changing and this will ensure the most precise measurements are taken thanks in part to the precision science and astronomical instrumentation expertise represented within the munnerlyn lab and the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy texas a&m has a key role in several major astronomical ventures across the world perhaps the most colossal is the giant magellan telescope project an 11-partner international collaboration working to construct the worlds largest telescope in chile by 2019 the next-generation wonder features seven massive honeycomb mirrors and an adaptable optics system that hinges on state-of-the-art astronomical instrumentation including first-light instruments being built at texas a&m in 2010 texas a&m astronomers were tasked with building the worlds premier survey spectrograph the visible integral-field replicable unit spectrographs (virus) a key component in the national science foundation-funded hobby-eberly telescope dark energy experiment (hetdex) one of the first international efforts to probe and understand dark energy beyond high-profile global partnerships the munnerlyn labs broader astronomical contribution is in training future astronomers undergraduate and graduate students like li who have had direct involvement in the construction of the instrumentation and the resulting accumulation of data weve done other small projects for the dark energy survey in the past but this is yet another example of the excellent work our undergrad and grad students are doing in our lab said jennifer marshall associate research scientist in the department of physics and astronomy and manager of the munnerlyn lab i think this is texas a&ms greatest contribution to this project and what makes me the most proud for li its the culmination of a three-year process of constructing prototypes and test runs that involved multiple trips to chile often in extreme conditions on more than one occasion li endured the high altitudes freezing temperatures for hours at a time while making sure atmcam ran properly its amazing to have a working observatory at one of the best sites in chile if not the world li said after all that weve been through in that short timeframe everything is finished and working click here to see additional images of atmcam and lis adventures in chile to learn more about the munnerlyn astronomical laboratory and related projects visit http://instrumentationtamuedu for more information on texas a&m astronomy go to http://astronomytamuedu # # # # # # # # # # about texas a&m impacts: texas a&m impacts is an ongoing series highlighting the significant contributions of texas a&m university students faculty staff and former students to their community state nation and world about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is in the vanguard in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represents annual expenditures of more than $820 million that research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu -atm- contact: chris jarvis (979) 845-7246 or cjarvis@sciencetamuedu or dr jennifer marshall (979) 862-2782 or marshall@physicstamuedu