Biography
Biography: Baptiste MOT
Abstract
PILOT (Polarized Instrument for Long wavelength Observations of the Tenuous interstellar medium) is a balloon-borne astronomy experiment designed to study the polarization of dust emission in the diff use interstellar medium in our Galaxy. Th e PILOT instrument allows observations at wavelengths 240μm and 550μm with an angular resolution of about two arcminutes. Th e observations performed during the two fi rst fl ights performed from Timmins, Ontario Canada and from Alice-springs, Australia, respectively in September 2015 and in April 2017 have demonstrated the good performances of the instrument. Pilot optics is composed of an off -axis Gregorian type telescope combined with a refractive re-imager system. All optical elements, except the primary mirror, which is at ambient temperature are inside a cryostat and cooled down to 3K. The whole optical system is aligned on the ground at room temperature using dedicated means and procedures in order to keep the tight requirements on the focus position and ensure the instrument optical performances during the various phases of a flight. We’ll present the optical performances and the fi rsts results obtained during the two fi rst fl ight campaigns. Th e talk describes the system analysis, the alignment methods and fi nally the in-fl ight performances.