Vatican Tied Mount Graham Observatory Launches LUCIFER Telescope: Does Project Name Imply What Or Who They Are Looking For?

Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) partners in the U.S, Germany and Italy announced April 21 that the first of two new innovative near-infrared cameras/spectrographs for the LBT is now available to astronomers for scientific observations at the telescope on Mount Graham in southeastern Arizona. After more than a decade of design, manufacturing and testing, the new instrument – dubbed LUCIFER 1 – provides a powerful tool to gain spectacular insights into the universe – from the Milky Way to extremely distant galaxies. LUCIFER, built by a consortium of German institutes, will be followed by an identical twin instrument that will be delivered to the telescope in early 2011. "With the large light-gathering power of the LBT, astronomers are now able to collect the spectral fingerprints of the faintest and most distant objects in the universe," said LBT director Richard Green, a professor of astronomy at the University of Arizona's Steward Observatory. LUCIFER 1 and its twin are mounted at the focus points of the LBT's two giant 8.4-meter (27.6 foot) diameter telescope mirrors. Each instrument is cooled to -213 degrees Celsius in order to observe in the near-infrared wavelength range. Near-infrared observations are essential for understanding the formation of stars and planets in our galaxy as well as revealing the secrets of the most distant and very young galaxies.

LUCIFER's innovative design allows astronomers to observe in unprecedented detail, for example star forming regions, which are commonly hidden by dust clouds. The instrument is remarkably flexible, combining a large field of view with a high resolution. It provides three exchangeable cameras for imaging and spectroscopy in different resolutions according to observational requirements.

Astronomers use spectroscopy to analyze incoming light and answer questions such as how stars and galaxies formed and what they are made of.

The instruments were built by a consortium of five German institutes led by the Center for Astronomy of Heidelberg University, together with the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching, the Astronomical Institute of the Ruhr-University in Bochum, and the University of Applied Sciences in Mannheim.

The LBT is a collaboration among the Italian astronomical community (National Institute of Astrophysics), the University of Arizona, Arizona State University, Northern Arizona University, the LBT Beteiligungsgesellschaft in Germany (Max-Planck-Institut fϋr Astronomie in Heidelberg, Zentrum fur Astronomie der Universität Heidelberg, Astrophysikalisches Institut in Potsdam, Max-Planck-Institut fϋr Extraterrestrische Physik in Munich, and Max-Planck-Institut fϋr Radioastronomie in Bonn), and the Ohio State University and Research Corporation (Ohio State University, University of Notre Dame, University of Minnesota and University of Virginia).

Additional Technical Background:

LUCIFER is an acronym for: Large Binocular Telescope Near-infrared Utility with Camera and Integral Field Unit for Extragalactic Research

LUCIFER's three exchangeable cameras are available for direct imaging, long-slit-spectroscopy and multi-object-spectroscopy. Two of them are optimized for seeing-limited conditions, a third camera for diffraction-limited cases will be used after completion of the LBT adaptive secondary mirror system.

Using a four Mega-pixel Hawaii2-camera the instrument covers a comparatively large field of view of 4x4 arc minutes (about 1/50th of the full moon on sky).
According to observational requirements, presently a set of five broad-band filters (z, J, H, K, Ks), 12 medium and narrow-band filters and three different high-resolution spectroscopic gratings are available.

A special feature of the LUCIFER is 10 fixed and up to 22 exchangeable masks which can be used for longslit and multi-object spectroscopy (MOS). This multiplex-technology developed at MPE allows the spectroscopy of about two dozen objects simultaneously and reduces the costs per photon and observing time at the telescope dramatically. All laser-cut MOS-masks are stored in a separate magazine which can be replaced with new masks at fully cryogenic temperatures using an external cryostat and a vacuum interlock to the main instrument. This work can be done within a few hours during a normal service-interval in day-time and avoids a several days lasting warming-up and cooling-down cycle of the complete LUCIFER-instrument preserving valuable observing time.

From the Department of Astronomy at The University of Arizona press release (4/22/2010): LUCIFER allows astronomers to watch stars being born

Morality Can Be Altered

Morality Can Be Altered
Posted by Jeffrey K Radt ("JRed")
www.lookupfellowship.com

This is for anyone who has ever been skeptical about my assertions regarding HAARP, and who has asked me, "Why would anyone even create a device that can influence people's mind when such a scenario isn't even a possibility?"Allow me to present to you the latest evidence as to why this type of technology would be an extremely powerful weapon in the hands of some pretty evil characters.Did you see this story courtesy of MIT?Moral Judgments Can Be Altered...By Magnets By disrupting brain activity in a particular region, neuroscientists can sway people’s views of moral situations.Anne Trafton, MIT News OfficeMarch 30, 2010To make moral judgments about other people, we often need to infer their intentions — an ability known as “theory of mind.”

For example, if one hunter shoots another while on a hunting trip, we need to know what the shooter was thinking: Was he secretly jealous, or did he mistake his fellow hunter for an animal?MIT neuroscientists have now shown they can influence those judgments by interfering with activity in a specific brain region — a finding that helps reveal how the brain constructs morality.Previous studies have shown that a brain region known as the right temporo-parietal junction (TPJ) is highly active when we think about other people’s intentions, thoughts and beliefs. In the new study, the researchers disrupted activity in the right TPJ by inducing a current in the brain using a magnetic field applied to the scalp. They found that the subjects’ ability to make moral judgments that require an understanding of other people’s intentions — for example, a failed murder attempt — was impaired.

The researchers, led by Rebecca Saxe, MIT assistant professor of brain and cognitive sciences, report their findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences the week of March 29. Funding for the research came from The National Center for Research Resources, the MIND Institute, the Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, the Simons Foundation and the David and Lucille Packard Foundation.“You think of morality as being a really high-level behavior,” she says. “To be able to apply (a magnetic field) to a specific brain region and change people’s moral judgments is really astonishing. It doesn’t completely reverse people’s moral judgments, it just biases them.”This is why it's absolutely essential to make Jesus Christ your Lord and Savior. Their is power in His shed blood and what He did for us once we are saved and put Him front and center in our lives.

The issue of needing to be forgiven for our sins notwithstanding, why would you even take the risk of going through this life on your own when there are so many fringe scientists out there using people like you and me as their guinea pigs to perfect the next generation of weaponry like these types of things?This is also why we must take this command very seriously:2 Corinthians 10:5 (KJV) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;I must say that I was shocked to find a science publication (and the scientists quoted in the article) tacitly admitting that there is a moral baseline in this world.It was shocking because a few days earlier, I had read that Neuroscientists don’t believe in souls -- but that doesn’t mean they can’t sell theirs (to the Pentagon).

Needless to say, this particular account was refreshing in that sense.To read about how this one openly accepts a "right" and a "wrong" hints of an underlying predisposition to possibly one day accept Jesus Christ (if they haven't already).So, despite the fact that this is the type of information that leads one to want to keep a closer eye on black ops government projects like HAARP, I look at it and also see God working.