Sensitivity forecast paper for BLAST Observatory published in Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific

In support of our team’s new proposal to build and fly an upgraded version of BLAST-TNG that we call BLAST Observatory, we have published a study of the mapping speed that can be achieved this Super Pressure Balloon mission, which incorporates 8274 Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detectors operating at 175, 250, … Continue reading

BLAST-TNG passed “compatibility”!

We attached our experiment to the NASA launch vehicle and worked with NASA engineers to look for interference between NASA’s communications and control systems and our experiment’s functions. No problems were found – we are flight ready!  Now all depends on the weather. Fingers crossed for a launch opportunity soon!

Team Photo

Yesterday was the busiest day here at CSBF for the BLAST team, so we decided to take a group photo of almost all the team. Not only the team was almost completed but also BLAST starts to be almost all mounted, we added the scoop and the readout system on … Continue reading

The mirrors are on!!

After several days that Nate and I discussed about writing a blog and publishing more photos of our life in the high bay at CSBF, I finally found 10 minutes to do so. After 2 weeks we did a lot of progress, and I think that there is no better way to start our blog that publishing a time lapse of a critical day like today. We transfer liquid helium, so now Layla is cooling down to 4K, we installed the mirrors and for the first time we rotate them. It is a great achievement and everything went fine.

In the future, I will publish more photos than the one that you see on Instagram.

-Gabriele