Dr. Alex Bichkovsky Profile

Dr. Alex Bichkovsky

at Weizmann Institute of Science

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Author

Publications (11)

Proceedings Article | 11 September 2024 Poster + Paper

DeepSpec: a broad-band R~650 spectrograph with multiplexing capabilities

I. Irani, S. Ben-Ami, Y. Sofer-Rimalt, E. Ofek, G. Mikhnevich, A. Gal-Yam, J. Achren, A. Bichkovsky, A. Blumenweig, N. Hallakoun, O. Hershko, H. Kuncarayakti, S. Mattila, O. Ironi, D. Polishook, O. Yaron

Proceedings Volume 13094, 1309453 (2024) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3018423

KEYWORDS: Telescopes, Collimators, Spectrographs, Cameras, Glasses, Prisms, Image quality, Equipment, Signal to noise ratio, Design, Optical arrays

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Proceedings Article | 25 July 2024 Poster + Paper

Automated scheduler for the SOXS instrument: design and performance

Laura Asquini, Marco Landoni, Dave Young, Laurent Marty, Stephen Smartt, Sergio Campana, Riccardo Claudi, Pietro Schipani, Jani Achrén, Matteo Aliverti, José A. Araiza-Durán, Iair Arcavi, Federico Battaini, Andrea Baruffolo, Sagi Ben-Ami, Andrea Bianco, Alex Bichkovsky, Anna Brucalassi, Rachel Bruch, Giulio Capasso, Enrico Cappellaro, Mirko Colapietro, Rosario Cosentino, Francesco D'Alessio, Paolo D'Avanzo, Massimo Della Valle, Sergio D'Orsi, Rosario Di Benedetto, Simone Di Filippo, Avishay Gal-Yam, Matteo Genoni, Marcos Hernandez, Ofir Hershko, Jari Kotilainen, Hanindyo Kuncarayakti, Gianluca Li Causi, Seppo Mattila, Matteo Munari, Giorgio Pariani, Hector Pérez Ventura, Giuliano Pignata, Kalyan Radhakrishnan, Michael Rappaport, Davide Ricci, Marco Riva, Adam Rubin, Bernardo Salasnich, Salvatore Savarese, Maximilian Stritzinger, Salvatore Scuderi, Fabrizio Vitali, Ricardo Zanmar Sanchez

Proceedings Volume 13101, 131012F (2024) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3018271

KEYWORDS: Equipment, Telescopes, Astronomy, Databases, Lanthanum, Detection and tracking algorithms, Design, Tunable filters, Observatories, Adverse weather

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We present the advancements in the development of the scheduler for the Son Of X-shooter (SOXS, 1,2) instrument at the ESO-NTT 3.58-m telescope in La Silla, Chile. SOXS is designed as a single-object spectroscopic facility and features a high-efficiency spectrograph with two arms covering the spectral range of 350-2000 nm and a mean resolving power of approximately R=4500. Its primary purpose is to conduct UV-visible and near-infrared follow-up observations of astrophysical transients, drawing from a broad pool of targets accessible through the streaming services of wide-field telescopes, both current and future, as well as high-energy satellites. The instrument is set to cater to various scientific objectives within the astrophysical community, each entailing specific requirements for observation planning, a challenge that the observing scheduler must address. A notable feature of SOXS is that it will operate at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in La Silla, without the presence of astronomers on the mountain. This poses a unique challenge for the scheduling process, demanding a fully automated algorithm that is autonomously interacting with the appropriate databases and the La Silla Weather API, and is capable of presenting the operator not only with an ordered list of optimal targets (in terms of observing constraints) but also with optimal backups in the event of changing weather conditions. This requirement imposes the necessity for a scheduler with rapid-response capabilities without compromising the optimization process, ensuring the high quality of observations and best use of the time at the telescope. We thus developed a new highly available and scalable architecture, implementing API Restful applications like Docker Containers, API Gateway, and Python-based Flask frameworks. We provide an overview of the current state of the scheduler, which is now ready for the approaching on-site testing during Commissioning phase, along with insights into its web interface and preliminary performance tests.

Proceedings Article | 25 July 2024 Poster + Paper

The SOXS instrument control software approaching the PAE

Davide Ricci, Bernardo Salasnich, Andrea Baruffolo, Jani Achrén, Matteo Aliverti, José A. Araiza-Durán, Iair Arcavi, Laura Asquini, Federico Battaini, Sagi Ben-Ami, Alex Bichkovsky, Anna Brucalassi, Rachel Bruch, Lorenzo Cabona, Sergio Campana, Giulio Capasso, Enrico Cappellaro, Riccardo Claudi, Mirko Colapietro, Rosario Cosentino, Francesco D'Alessio, Paolo D'Avanzo, Sergio D'Orsi, Massimo Della Valle, Rosario Di Benedetto, Simone Di Filippo, Avishay Gal-Yam, Matteo Genoni, Marcos Hernandez Díaz, Ofir Hershko, Jari Kotilainen, Hanindyo Kuncarayakti, Marco Landoni, Gianluca Li Causi, Laurent Marty, Seppo Mattila, Matteo Munari, Luca Oggioni, Hector Pérez Ventura, Giorgio Pariani, Giuliano Pignata, Kalyan Radhakrishnan, Stephen Smartt, Michael Rappaport, Marco Riva, Adam Rubin, Salvatore Savarese, Pietro Schipani, Salvatore Scuderi, Maximilian Stritzinger, Fabrizio Vitali, David Young, Ricardo Zanmar Sanchez

Proceedings Volume 13101, 131012G (2024) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3018278

KEYWORDS: Equipment, Control software, Astronomy, Spectrographs, Telescopes, Software development, Interfaces

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Proceedings Article | 18 July 2024 Poster + Paper

What is your favorite transient event? SOXS is almost ready to observe!

Kalyan Kumar Radhakrishnan Santhakumari, Federico Battaini, Simone Di Filippo, Silvio Di Rosa, Lorenzo Cabona, Riccardo Claudi, Luigi Lessio, Marco Dima, David Young, Marco Landoni, Mirko Colapietro, Sergio D'Orsi, Matteo Aliverti, Matteo Genoni, Matteo Munari, Ricardo Zanmar Sánchez, Fabrizio Vitali, Davide Ricci, Pietro Schipani, Sergio Campana, Jani Achrén, José Araiza-Durán, Iair Arcavi, Andrea Baruffolo, Sagi Ben-Ami, Alex Bichkovsky, Anna Brucalassi, Rachel Bruch, Giulio Capasso, Enrico Cappellaro, Rosario Cosentino, Francesco D'Alessio, Paolo D'Avanzo, Massimo Della Valle, Rosario Di Benedetto, Avishay Gal-Yam, Marcos Hernandez Diaz, Ofir Hershko, Jari Kotilainen, Hanindyo Kuncarayakti, Gianluca Li Causi, Luca Marafatto, Eugenio Martinetti, Laurent Marty, Seppo Mattila, Antonio Miccichè, Gaetano Nicotra, Luca Oggioni, Hector Perez Ventura, Giorgio Pariani, Giuliano Pignata, Michael Rappaport, Marco Riva, Adam Rubin, Bernardo Salasnich, Salvatore Savarese, Salvatore Scuderi, Steven Smartt, Maximilian Stritzinger

Proceedings Volume 13096, 1309673 (2024) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3019020

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Proceedings Article | 18 July 2024 Presentation + Paper

Innovations in the design and construction of the GMT-Consortium Large Earth Finder (G-CLEF), a first-light instrument for the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT)

Andrew Szentgyorgyi, Sagi Ben-Ami, Jae Sok Oh, Chan Park, Daniel Baldwin, Jacob Bean, Alex Bichkovsky, Patricia Brennan, Daniel Catropa, Chueh-Yi Chou, Moo-Young Chun, Laird Close, Jeffrey Crane, Peter Doherty, Daniel Durusky, Jason Eastman, Harland Epps, Ian Evans, Vitor Hartmann, Ofir Hershko, Bi-Ho Jang, Jeong-Gyun Jang, Ueejeong Jeong, Andres Jordan, Colby Jurgenson, Jan Kansky, Jihun Kim, Kang-Min Kim, Sanghyuk Kim, Yunjong Kim, Sungho Lee, Matthew Leung, Hung-Hsu Ling, Henrique Lupinari, Jared Males, Kenneth McCracken, Claudia Mendes de Oliveira, Rafael Millan-Gabet, Mark Mueller, Heeyoung Oh, Cem Onyuksel, Byeong-Gon Park, Sung-Joon Park, Woojin Park, William Podgorski, Andreas Seifahrt, Matthew Smith, Yahel Sofer-Rimalt, Shiang-Yu Wang, Abigail Unger, Alan Uomoto, Young-Sam Yu

Proceedings Volume 13096, 130960Z (2024) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3018439

KEYWORDS: Telescopes, Calibration, Spectrographs, Interfaces, Design, Cameras, Optical fibers, Equipment, Echelle gratings, Exoplanets

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Proceedings Article | 18 July 2024 Poster + Paper

Final alignment and image quality test for the acquisition and guiding system of SOXS

José Araiza-Durán, Giuliano Pignata, Anna Brucalassi, Matteo Aliverti, Federico Battaini, Kalyan Radhakrishnan, Simone Di Filippo, Luigi Lessio, Riccardo Claudi, Davide Ricci, Mirko Colapietro, Rosario Cosentino, Sergio D'Orsi, Matteo Munari, Marco Dima, Pietro Schipani, Sergio Campana, Andrea Baruffolo, Ricardo Zanmar Sánchez, Marco Riva, Matteo Genoni, Sagi Ben-Ami, Adam Rubin, Rachel Bruch, Giulio Capasso, Francesco D'Alessio, Paolo D'Avanzo, Ofir Hershko, Hanindyo Kuncarayakti, Marco Landoni, Salvatore Scuderi, Fabrizio Vitali, David Young, Jani Achrén, Iair Arcavi, Enrico Cappellaro, Massimo Della Valle, Rosario Di Benedetto, Avishay Gal-Yam, Marcos Hernandez Diaz, Jari Kotilainen, Gianluca Li Causi, Laurent Marty, Seppo Mattila, Michael Rappaport, Bernardo Salasnich, Stephen Smartt, Maximilian Stritzinger, Hector Perez Ventura, Laura Asquini, Alex Bichkovsky, Salvatore Savarese, Lorenzo Cabona

Proceedings Volume 13096, 1309672 (2024) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3019190

KEYWORDS: Cameras, Telescopes, Distortion, Tolerancing, Image quality, Monte Carlo methods, Image filtering, Optical filters, Spectrographs

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Proceedings Article | 18 July 2024 Poster + Paper

G@M: coupling the G-CLEF spectrograph to the Magellan Telescope

Yahel Sofer Rimalt, Sagi Ben-Ami, Andrew Szentgyorgyi, Ofir Hershko, Alex Bichkovsky, Enrico Segre, Mark Mueller, Cem Onyuksel, Colby Jurgenson, William Podgorski, Laird Close, Jared Males

Proceedings Volume 13096, 130964N (2024) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3018660

KEYWORDS: Telescopes, Beam path, Mirrors, Sensors, Spectrographs, Analog to digital converters, Calibration, Cameras, Optical fibers, Design

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Proceedings Article | 18 July 2024 Poster + Paper

The integration of the SOXS control electronics towards the PAE

M. Colapietro, S. D'Orsi, G. Capasso, S. Savarese, P. Schipani, L. Marty, R. Zanmar Sanchez, M. Aliverti, F. Battaini, S. Di Filippo, K. Radhakrishnan, D. Ricci, B. Salasnich, S. Campana, R. Claudi, J. Araiza-Durán, A. Baruffolo, S. Ben-Ami, A. Bichkovsky, A. Brucalassi, R. Cosentino, F. D'Alessio, P. D'Avanzo, R. Di Benedetto, M. Genoni, O. Hershko, H. Kuncarayakti, L. Lessio, E. Martinetti, A. Miccichè, G. Nicotra, G. Pignata, A. Rubin, S. Scuderi, F. Vitali, J. Achrén, I. Arcavi, L. Asquini, R. Bruch, E. Cappellaro, M. Della Valle, A. Gal-Yam, M. Hernandez Díaz, J. Kotilainen, M. Landoni, G. Li Causi, S. Mattila, M. Munari, H. Pérez Ventura, M. Rappaport, M. Riva, S. Smartt, M. Stritzinger, D. Young

Proceedings Volume 13096, 130962W (2024) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3018619

KEYWORDS: Control systems, Equipment, Observational astronomy, Spectrographs, Telescopes

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Proceedings Article | 18 July 2024 Poster + Paper

Characterisation and assessment of the SOXS Spectrograph UV-VIS detector system

Rosario Cosentino, Marcos Hernandez, Hector Ventura, Sergio Campana, Riccardo Claudi, Pietro Schipani, Matteo Aliverti, Laura Asquini, Andrea Baruffolo, Federico Battaini, Sagi Ben-Ami, Alex Bichkovsky, Giulio Capasso, Francesco D'Alessio, Paolo D'Avanzo, Ofir Hershko, Hanindyo Kuncarayakti, Marco Landoni, Matteo Munari, Giuliano Pignata, Adam Rubin, Salvatore Scuderi, Fabrizio Vitali, David Young, Jani Achrén, José Antonio Araiza-Durán, Iair Arcavi, Anna Brucalassi, Rachel Bruch, Enrico Cappellaro, Mirko Colapietro, Massimo Della Valle, Rosario Di Benedetto, Simone Di Filippo, Sergio D'Orsi, Avishay Gal-Yam, Matteo Genoni, Jari Kotilainen, Gianluca Li Causi, Laurent Marty, Seppo Mattila, Michael Rappaport, Kalyan Radhakrishnan, Davide Ricci, Marco Riva, Bernardo Salasnich, Salvatore Savarese, Stephen Smartt, Ricardo Zanmar Sanchez, Maximilian Stritzinger, Matteo Accardo, Leander Mehrgan, Derek Ives

Proceedings Volume 13096, 130962U (2024) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3019853

KEYWORDS: Charge-coupled devices, CCD image sensors, Telescopes, Spectrographs, Astronomy, Observational astronomy, Human-machine interfaces, Sensors, Quantum reading, Device simulation

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Proceedings Article | 18 July 2024 Presentation + Paper

Walking with SOXS towards the transient sky

P. Schipani, S. Campana, R. Claudi, M. Aliverti, A. Baruffolo, S. Ben-Ami, G. Capasso, M. Colapietro, R. Cosentino, F. D'Alessio, P. D'Avanzo, M. Genoni, O. Hershko, H. Kuncarayakti, M. Landoni, M. Munari, G. Pignata, K. Radhakrishnan, D. Ricci, A. Rubin, S. Scuderi, F. Vitali, D. Young, M. Accardo, J. Achrén, J. Araiza-Durán, I. Arcavi, L. Asquini, F. Battaini, A. Bichkovsky, A. Brucalassi, R. Bruch, L. Cabona, E. Cappellaro, M. Della Valle, S. Di Filippo, R. Di Benedetto, S. D'Orsi, A. Gal-Yam, M. Hernandez, D. Ives, H.-U. Kaeufl, J. Kotilainen, G. Li Causi, L. Lessio, L. Marty, S. Mattila, L. Mehrgan, L. Pasquini, E. Pompei, M. Rappaport, M. Riva, B. Salasnich, S. Savarese, I. Saviane, M. Schöller, A. Silber, S. Smartt, R. Zanmar Sanchez, M. Stritzinger, A. Sulich, H. Ventura

Proceedings Volume 13096, 130961T (2024) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3019809

KEYWORDS: Spectrographs, Equipment, Telescopes, Observatories, Near infrared, Spectral resolution, Cameras, Astronomy, Lamps, Image quality

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Proceedings Article | 18 July 2024 Poster + Paper

HighSpec: a high-resolution spectrograph for the MAST telescope array

Yahel Sofer Rimalt, Sagi Ben-Ami, Eran Ofek, Na'ama Hallakoun, Ido Irani, Oren Ironi, Jani Achren, Alex Bichkovsky, Arie Blumenzweig, Ofir Hershko, Hanindyo Kuncarayakti, Seppo Mattila, Tsevi Mazeh, Gleb Mikhnevich, David Polishook, Ofer Yaron

Proceedings Volume 13096, 130968V (2024) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3020206

KEYWORDS: Telescopes, Spectrographs, Equipment, Calcium, Cameras, Sensors, Optical gratings, Magnesium, Calibration, Spectroscopes

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Showing 5 of 11 publications

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