CSU Professor Elliott Horch recently received the prestigious Fall 2024 NASA Connecticut Space Grant Faculty Research Award.
The NASA CT Space Grants, awarded each semester, offer funding up to $10,000 for faculty research. Horch plans to utilize this grant to advance work with the Southern Connecticut Stellar Interferometer (SCSI), a three-telescope instrument developed on campus. His proposal, titled “Toward Imaging Stellar Surfaces with the Southern Connecticut Stellar Interferometer,” focuses on refining methods to observe and measure bright stars.
“We’re excited to have this opportunity to extend the unique capabilities of our home-grown three-telescope astronomical instrument, which is one of only six of its kind in the world today,” said Horch. “Our students will learn how to observe stars and obtain ultra-fine image detail from right here on Southern’s campus.”
The project will include two modes of observation during the first half of 2025:
- Wired Mode: Observing bright stars by using a single timing correlator to record photons from all three telescopes, enabling precise measurement of star diameters.
- Wireless Mode: Conducting engineering observations where photons are detected and recorded independently at each telescope, synchronized via GPS signals. If successful, this approach will allow the SCSI to use larger baselines, paving the way for resolving surface features of bright stars—a major leap forward in astronomical instrumentation.
Horch’s research focuses on Stellar Astronomy, Binary Stars, Exoplanets, and Astronomical Instrumentation, utilizing techniques such as High-Resolution Imaging and Interferometry.
For those interested in participating in NASA CT Space Grant opportunities, the next call for proposals, open to both students and faculty, will be announced in spring 2025.
For more details about this exciting work, contact Elliott Horch at horche2@southernct.edu or Professor Dana Casetti, Southern’s on-campus NASA CT Space Grant representative, at casettid1@southernct.edu.
To learn more about the NASA CT Space Grant program, visit the official announcement.
