The MICADO atmospheric dispersion corrector (PhD defense Joost van den Born, RUG)

On May 9, Joost van den Born plans to obtain his doctorate from the University of Groningen. Supervisors are Eline Tolstoy and Bayu Jayawardhana. Copromotor is Willem Jellema. Van den Born studied a component of the MICADO instrument that is to be installed on the ELT which is currently under construction. That component, the atmospheric dispersion corrector, must ensure that the phenomenon that the earth's atmosphere slightly disperses the incoming light is neutralized. Van den Born invented a black-painted wooden grid to check whether the atmospheric dispersion corrector does its job properly. He not only performed simulations in the computer, but also made and tested a prototype of the grid (Van den Born calls it "a mask") on a Groningen telescope.