The SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation (SPIE ASTRO) symposium is held every two years to share the latest information on astronomy projects, telescopes, observational instruments, and fundamental technologies. The first SPIE ASTRO in Asia was held in Yokohama, Japan for six days, from June 16 to 21, 2024. Dr. Satoshi Miyazaki, Director of Subaru Telescope, co-chaired the symposium with Dr. Sarah Kendrew from the Space Telescope Science Institute (United States).
Contributions by Japanese Research Community
The symposium featured 12 parallel conferences. Researchers from Subaru Telescope presented the current status and future plans for the telescope's instruments and software at different conferences. Topics included the Prime Focus Spectrograph (PFS) in its final commissioning phase, the exoplanet direct imager with an upgraded adaptive optics system, the wide-field high-resolution infrared instrument using next-generation adaptive optics (ULTIMATE-Subaru), software development, and more. Two professors from the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ), Tomonori Usuda and Kentaro Motohara, chaired a conference, and other Japanese researchers also contributed as program committee members. In the morning sessions, Drs. Tomonori Usuda and Yuko Kakazu from the TMT Project, Dr. Saku Tsuneta, former Director General of NAOJ, and Dr. Makoto Tashiro from Saitama University delivered plenary talks on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday, respectively.
Figure 2: Dr. Saku Tsuneta, former Director General of NAOJ (left), and Dr. Makoto Tashiro from Saitama University (right) each delivered a plenary talk. For more information about the Monday plenary talk, please visit the TMT blog (in Japanese). (Credit: NAOJ)
The Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO), a NASA-led next-generation space telescope, was widely publicized at the conference. Japanese researchers are deeply involved in this project, including Dr. Miyazaki, a JAXA representative on the HWO Science, Technology, and Architecture Review Team (START). During SPIE ASTRO, the HWO Japan team and the NASA members held a fruitful three-hour meeting.
Figure 3: Dr. Mark Clampin, Astrophysics Division Director at NASA Headquarters, presented at the HWO meeting. (Credit: NAOJ)
The Exhibition Hall
The main hall was filled with booths from research institutes and companies. The NAOJ booth displayed prototypes of instruments and parts of the Subaru Telescope, TMT, ALMA, CLASP (Chromospheric Lyman-Alpha SpectroPolarimeter), and more. Each day, many attendees enjoyed the CCD elements on the Subaru Telescope's Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC), a high-speed readout CMOS sensor under development, and a 3D model of the Subaru Telescope.
Public Lecture Series
A free public lecture series titled "Frontiers of Space and Astronomy" was held on June 15, 2024, at the Pacific Convention Plaza Yokohama before SPIE ASTRO. Dr. Miyazaki talked about dark energy, which plays a key role in the accelerated expansion of the Universe, and about the development of HSC and its observation results, entitled "Subaru Telescope challenging the mystery of the accelerated expansion of the Universe." More than 150 participants attended in person, and including online viewers via NAOJ's YouTube channel, over 200 people listened to his talk. Participants asked him many questions and enjoyed communicating with him.
Figure 5: Dr. Miyazaki presented the Subaru Telescope's Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) in his talk. (Credit: NAOJ)
In 2024, the Subaru Telescope is celebrating the 25th anniversary of its first light in 1999. The SPIE ASTRO symposium was a productive opportunity for Subaru Telescope researchers to look back at their accomplishments and promulgate to the international community future plans for the Subaru Telescope and wider Japanese astronomy.
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