download report - Sapienza
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Scientific Report 2007-2009<br />
Laboratories and Facilities of the Department of Physics<br />
L24. Millimeter and Infrared Testagrigia Observatory<br />
MITO is an observing facility, developed and managed by the Experimental Cosmology Group, located in Valle dAosta<br />
(Northern Italy 45 56 03 North, 7 42 28 East) at an altitude of 3480 meter a.s.l. on the Italian-Swiss border.<br />
The project was proposed by Francesco Melchiorri at the end of 70s and it become<br />
real with the effort of the Istituto di CosmoGeofisica, CNR in Turin (now Istituto<br />
di Fisica dello Spazio Interplanetario, IFSI/INAF - sezione di Torino) and by the<br />
availability of the existing laboratory on the top of Testa Grigia mountain.<br />
The telescope is mainly dedicated to intensity and polarization observations of Cosmic<br />
Microwave Background anisotropies at millimeter and submillimeter wavelengths.<br />
The telescope has a f/4 Aplanatic Cassegrain (R-C) configuration with a 2.6 meter<br />
in diameter primary mirror and a subreflector of 41 cm in diameter. The focal plane<br />
scale is 25”/mm. The two monolithic mirrors have been manufactured in an aluminum<br />
alloy by Officine Ottico-Meccaniche Marcon (Italy): the primary mirror is only 115 kg<br />
in weight while the subreflector is 1.8 kg.<br />
Atmospheric emission, mainly due to water vapor, and its fluctuations are minimized<br />
with the choice of an high altitude site and by performing differential measurements<br />
with a wobbling subreflector. An alt-azimuth mount allows a compact instrument and<br />
an horizontal sky modulation even during the tracking of a source in the sky. The<br />
telescope is protected from local environment background by a radiation shield with<br />
vanes in the inner surface.<br />
The dome is connected to a laboratory where it is possible to communicate with all Figure 1: MITO telescope.<br />
the instrument subsystems. Several photometers, mainly developed by the group with<br />
detectors cooled down to 300 mK, have been installed at telescope focal plane. The<br />
laboratory is also equipped for lodging a maximum of 6 researchers during observational campaigns.<br />
http://oberon.roma1.infn.it/mito/<br />
Related research activities : A13, A14<br />
<strong>Sapienza</strong> Università di Roma 193 Dipartimento di Fisica
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