Christoph Birk has a M.S. degree in physics
(Diplom-Physiker) from the
University of Heidelberg,
Germany, in Physics & Astronomy and works as
Data Acquisition Programmer for CCD- and
IR-instrumentation at the
Carnegie Observatories
(The Observatories of the Carnegie Institution for Science).
The left hand image above was taken with
MAGIC,
the MpiA General purpose near Infrared Camera.
It is not cleaned in any way and shows me in reflected light
at a wavelength of 1.25 (J-band) micrometers.
The right hand image above was taken with an engineering grade
array of
FourStar.
It is not cleaned in any way and shows me in reflected light
at a wavelength of 1.65 (H-band) micrometers.
The following duties and projects keep me busy:
- Under development (2009?) :
FIRE
(2048*2048) IR Spectrograph for the
Magellan telescopes.
'C' -- MacOS-X (Aqua/Carbon), WindowsXP
- Under development (2009?) :
FourStar
(4*2048*2048) IR Camera for the
Clay telescope.
'C' -- MacOS-X (Aqua/Carbon), WindowsXP
- Under development (2008?) :
WF4K (4k*4k) upgrade to the
WFCCD
instrument at the
duPont (2.5m) telescope.
'C' -- Linux
- Under development (2008?) :
Planet Finder Spectrograph
(4064*4064 array, charge-shuffling, time-delayed integration)
for the
Clay telescope.
'C' -- MacOS-X (X11) / Linux
- Under development (2008?) :
SITE2K (2k*2k)
Direct Imaging CCD camera
instrument at the
duPont (2.5m) telescope.
'C' -- Linux
- Under development (2008) :
CAPSCam-North:
A copy of
CAPSCam
for the
Hooker 100-Inch Telescope
on
Mount Wilson.
- 2008:
Mosaic/2:
A 2nd dewar for
IMACS.
This addition avoids dewar changes between the two (f/2,f/4) foci
and allows switching between the two cameras within seconds.
(Software description and screenshots)
'C' -- MacOS-X (X11) / Linux
- 2007:
MagE
is an echellette spectrograph for the
Clay telescope.
'C' -- MacOS-X (X11) / Linux
(Screenshots)
- 2007: GISMO
(Gladders Image-Slicing Multislit Option) for
IMACS.
'C' -- Linux
- 2007: CAPSCam -
(2048*2048 HyViSi array 'H2RG', 4 outputs, independent guide-window readout)
for the
duPont (2.5m) telescope.
Some pictures taken during
the comissioning run at the telescope.
'C' -- Linux
(Software description and screenshots)
- 2006: MMTF -
Maryland-Magellan tunable filter for the
IMACS.
f/2 mode.
This picture was taken after
the successful installation at the telescope.
'C' -- Linux
- 2006:
B&C
(Boller & Chivens) spectrograph upgrade and integration into the
duPont (2.5m)
telescope enivironment at
at LCO.
'C' -- Linux, ~20k lines
(screenshot)
- 2005: RetroCam -
(1024*1024 IR Camera) for the
Swope (1.0m) telescope
at LCO.
'C' -- WindowsXP/Windows98
- 2005:
LDSS-3 -
Upgrade of
LDSS-2
using the new CCD controller (cf. IMACS, MIKE), absolute encoders
and a new GUI.
'C' -- Linux, ~23k lines
(screenshot)
- 2004: MOE -
A combination echellette and cross-dispersing prism for the
IMACS.
f/4 mode.
'C' -- Linux
- 2004: Carnegie-DIMM
(Differential Image Motion Monitor): Site testing for the
Giant Magellan Telescope.
'C' -- Windows XP, ~16k lines
(Software description and screenshots)
- 2003:
IFU -
Add software support for the 'Integral Field Unit' into the
IMACS
control software.
'C' -- Linux
- 2003:
IMACS -
(8k*8k CCD mosaic camera and spectrograph) for the
Baade telescope
at LCO.
'C' -- Linux, ~81k lines
(Software description and screenshots)
- 2003:
PANIC -
(1024*1024 IR Camera) for the
Baade telescope
at LCO.
'C' -- Windows2000/Windows98 (~24k lines)
- 2002:
MIKE -
User interface and data acquistion for MIKE
(dual channel CCD spectrograph) at the
Magellan telescopes.
'C' -- Linux (~14k lines)
(screenshot)
- 2001:
WIRC/IR4 -
Replacement of CIRSI
(new dewar, arrays and electronics).
'C' -- WindowsNT/Windows98
- 2001: LDSS-2: Integration into the
Magellan environment.
Development of a GUI for mask-, grism-, filter-wheel and focus control.
'C' -- Linux/Solaris, ~5k lines
(screenshot)
- 2001:
GMap
tool for the calculation and display of guide star positions at the
Swope and
duPont telescopes.
- 2001: Compilation of an extensive (~500e6 entries) guide-star catalog
from the
USNO-A2
catalog by re-indexing and re-formatting, optimized for high-speed access.
This catalog is used with the
IMACS
mask cutting software and the
Magellan
telescope guider system.
- 2000:
WIRC
: a K-Band extension to CIRSI
'C' -- WindowsNT/Windows95 (~31k lines)
- 1999: Integration of
CIRSI
(4*1024*1024 IR camera)
into the 100" telescope enivironment at
LCO.
'C' -- WindowsNT and Solaris
- ongoing: upgrades/maintenance of existing CCD- and IR-cameras and the
40" and 100" telescopes
at LCO.
e.g. 2/2002: dithering;
8/2001: LDSS2, focus-sequence;
4/2001: C40-TCS;
3/1998: C100-TCS;
8/1997: multiple subrasters;
6/1997: WFCCD-filter and -aperture wheel control.
'C' -- LynxOS (real-time UNIX) and SunOS/Solaris/Linux.
Fortran -- MS-DOS
(screenshot)
- ongoing: upgrades/maintenance of the existing
IR-camera
at the 60" telescope
at Mt. Palomar Observatory
5/1999: dithering;
7/1998: TCS control from instrument computer.
'C' -- LynxOS (real-time UNIX) and SunOS/Solaris
Until May 1997 I worked at
MPIA
(Max-Planck Intitut fuer Astronomie,
Heidelberg, Germany). 
Here are some projects I was involved in at MPIA:
all using the same
GUI.
It is written in C and runs under Unix
(SunOS 4.x or Solaris 2.x).
Publications
I am very interested in the game of Go!
- Phone: (626) 304-0218
- Fax: (626) 795-8136
- E-mail: birk AT ociw DOT edu
- Postal: Carnegie Observatories, 813 Santa Barbara St.,
Pasadena, CA 91101, U.S.A.
Christoph's homepage
1997-06-18, Christoph C. Birk, Carnegie Observatories (last updated:
2008-12-05)
