• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.208.1-208.1
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• 2012

The Ultra Fast Flash Observatory (UFFO) pathfinder is a payload system on-board the Russian satellite Lomonosov, scheduled to be launched in 2013. The main purpose of the UFFO pathfinder is to observe the early photons from Gamma-Ray Bursts. It consists of two instruments. The first instrument is the UFFO Burst Alert X-ray Trigger telescope (UBAT) for the fast-trigger and detection of GRB location, and the second is the Slewing Mirror Telescope (SMT) for the observation of the UV/optical afterglow from the GRB located by the UBAT. It will provide the first-ever systematic study of UV/optical emission far earlier than 1 sec after trigger. We will present the design, fabrication and the preliminary performance of the UBAT.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.207.2-207.2
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• 2012

The Ultra Fast Flash Observatory (UFFO) pathfinder consists of the UFFO Burst Alert X-ray Trigger telescope (UBAT) and the Slewing Mirror Telescope (SMT). They are controlled by the UFFO Data Acquisition system (UDAQ). The UBAT triggers Gamma-Ray Bursts(GRBs) and sends the position information to the SMT. The SMT slews the motorized mirror rapidly to the GRB position to take the UV/Optical data within a second after trigger. The UDAQ controls each instrument, communicates with the satellite, collects the data from UBAT and SMT, and transfers them to the satellite. Each instrument uses its own field programmable gates arrays (FPGA) for low power consumption and fast processing, and all functions are implemented in FPGAs without using microprocessors. The entire electronics system of the UFFO pathfinder including architecture, control, and data flow will be presented.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.68.2-68.2
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• 2013

Camera for QUasars in EArly uNiverse (CQUEAN) is an optical CCD camera system made by Center for Exploration of the Origin of the Universe (CEOU). CQUEAN is developed for follow-up observation of red sources such as high-redshift quasar candidates ($z{\geq}5$), gamma-ray bursts (GRB), brown dwarfs and young stellar objects. The CQUEAN is composed of a science camera with deep-depletion CCD chip which is sensitive at around $1{\mu}m$, a set of custom-made wide-band filters for detection of quasar candidates at z~5, and a guide camera. A focal reducer was developed to secure $4.8^{\prime}{\times}4.8^{\prime}$ field of view, and an in-house user software for efficient data acquisition. CQUEAN was attached to 2.1m Otto Struve Telescope in McDonald Observatory, USA, in August 2010. About 1000 quasar candidates including 3 confirmed with follow-up spectroscopy, have been observed so far, and many high-z galaxy cluster candidates, GRBs and supernovae were also observed. And monitoring of HBC 722, a young stellar object, is under way since 2011. Further enhancement of CQUEAN including the introduction of narrow-band filters is planned.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.34.2-34.2
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• 2017

A small wide-field imaging telescope is a powerful instrument to survey the Universe: wide-field image can monitor the variability of many sources at a time, e.g. young stellar objects and active galactic nuclei, and it can be an effective way to locate transient sources without precise positional information such as gravitational wave sources or some gamma-ray bursts. In February 2017, we installed a 0.25 m f/3.6 telescope on the McDonald 0.8 m telescope as a piggyback system. With a $4k{\times}4k$ CCD camera, the telescope has a $2.35{\times}2.35deg$ field-of-view. Currently, it is equipped with Johnson UBVRI filters and 3 narrow-band filters: $H{\alpha}$, OIII and SII. We will present the installation process, and the telescope performance such as detection limit and image quality based on the data from commissioning observations. We will also discuss possible scientific projects with this system.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.120.1-120.1
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• 2009

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.71-87
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• 2011

Gravitational waves are predicted by the Einstein's theory of General Relativity. The direct detection of gravitational waves is one of the most challenging tasks in modern science and engineering due to the 'weak' nature of gravity. Recent development of the laser interferometer technology, however, makes it possible to build a detector on Earth that is sensitive up to 100-1000 Mpc for strong sources. It implies an expected detection rate of neutron star mergers, which are one of the most important targets for ground-based detectors, ranges between a few to a few hundred per year. Therefore, we expect that the gravitational-wave observation will be routine within several years. Strongest gravitational-wave sources include tight binaries composed of compact objects, supernova explosions, gamma-ray bursts, mergers of supermassive black holes, etc. Together with the electromagnetic waves, the gravitational wave observation will allow us to explore the most exotic nature of astrophysical objects as well as the very early evolution of the universe. This review provides a comprehensive overview of the theory of gravitational waves, principles of detections, gravitational-wave detectors, astrophysical sources of gravitational waves, and future prospects.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.208.2-208.2
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• 2012

The Slewing Mirror Telescope (SMT) is a key telescope of Ultra-Fast Flash Observatory (UFFO) space project to explore the first sub-minute or sub-seconds early photons from the Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs) afterglows. The first realization of UFFO is the 20kg UFFO-Pathfinder (UFFO-P) to be launched on board the Russian Lomonosov satellite in 2013 by the Soyuz-2 rocket. Once the UFFO Burst Alert & Trigger Telescope (UBAT) detects the GRBs, Slewing mirror (SM) will rotate to bring the GRB into the SMT's field of view instead of slewing the entire spacecraft. SMT can image the UV/Optical counterpart with about 4-arcsec accuracy. However it will provide a important understanding of the GRB mechanism by measuring the sub-minute optical photons from GRBs. SMT can respond to the trigger over $35^{\circ}{\times}35^{\circ}$ wide field of view within 1 sec by using Slewing Mirror Stage (SMS). SMT has 10-cm Ritchey-Chretien telescope and $256{\times}256$ pixilated Intensified Charge-Coupled Device (ICCD) on focal plane. In this paper, we discuss the overall design of UFFO-P SMT instrument and payloads development status.

• Bulletin of the Korean Space Science Society
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• 2009.04a
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• pp.64.3-64.3
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• 2009

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.207.1-207.1
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• 2012

One of the key aspects of the upcoming Ultra-Fast Observatory (UFFO) Pathfinder for Gamma-Ray Bursts(GRBs) identification will be the UFFO Burst Alert & Trigger Telescope(UBAT), based on a novel space telescope technique. The UBAT consists of coded mask, hopper, and detector module(DM). The UBAT DM consists of YSO crystal arrays, multi-anode photo mulipliers, and readout electronics. We will present the design and construction of the UBAT DM, and the response of the UBAT DM to X-ray sources.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.68.1-68.1
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• 2013

Infrared Medium-Deep Survey is a near-infrared imaging survey geared toward understanding the formation and the evolution of quasars and galaxies at high redshift, and studying transient and time-variable objects such as gamma-ray bursts, supernovae, and young stellar objects. The survey uses a multi-tier structure, with deep imaging survey of 100 $deg^2$ using UKIRT to the depth of 23 AB mag, and a shallower imaging of interesting sources using the CQUEAN camera on the 2.1m telescope at McDonald observatory. This talk will give an overview of the survey strategy, the instrument development, and science highlights. The science highlights will include the discovery of high redshift quasars, high redshift galaxy clusters, GRBs, and other interesting sources. At the end of the talk, we will also present the future prospects of our study.