Ref0040 / Deadline: October 21st, 2014. (14:00 h)

Cerrado / Closed

Offer Description

The “Centro de Estudios de Física del Cosmos de Aragón” (CEFCA) invites applications for a Optical Engineer with experience in Optical Systems for Astrophysical Observatories. The successful applicant will work in the framework of the Project "Development and Scientific Exploitation of the Observatorio Astrofísico de Javalambre: First Science on Galaxy Evolution and Cosmology with Large Sky Surveys". The Project is being funded for the 2013-2015 period by the PNAyA Program of the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, through the project code AYA2012-30789 (P.I. Javier Cenarro).

CEFCA is an Astrophysics and Cosmology research center located in Teruel (Spain) leading the construction and scientific operation of he “Observatorio Astrofísico de Javalambre” (OAJ). OAJ, specifically designed for the development of large astronomical surveys, is equipped with two main telescopes: JST250, 2.5m telescope with a field of view of 3 degrees (diameter) and JAST80, a 0.80m telescope with a FoV of 2 degrees. The JAST80 telescope, already deployed at the OAJ, is undergoing its fine-tunning phase. The JST250, already integrated at the OAJ, is expected to be ready at the OAJ by the end of 2014. OAJ also leverages a set of 20-40cm telescopes devoted to night sky quality monitoring: Seeing, extinction, clouds monitors, etc.

The candidate will join CEFCA’s engineering department working in the optics group in charge of optical engineering services for CEFCA/OAJ.

Duties

1. Establishment of technical specifications and statement of work for design, development, and implementation of optical systems.
2. Review optical designs and interfaces definition of the OAJ telescopes and scientific instrumentation.
3. Follow up optical system's manufacturing and acceptance processes.
4. Participation in the integration, optical alignment and verification of telescopes and scientific instrumentation of the OAJ.
5. Participation in optical filters design, acceptance, characterization and long term tracking for JPCam and T80Cam.
6. Management and maintenance of CEFCA's Optical laboratories.
7. Inspect and measure optical performance of mirrors especially after aluminum coating process.
8. Create technical documentation including design updates, support guide, maintenance procedures, material lists and tooling requirements for the optical elements and systems at the OAJ.
9. Participation in reviewing, designing and definition of the OAJ standards and procedures.

Valuable Knolewdge and Experience

Knowledge and/or experience in:

1. Observatory systems, Telescopes and Astronomical instrumentation.
2. Fundamental optics: geometric optics, ray tracing, wavefront propagation, polarization, fabrication tolerances, environmental effects.
3. Optical design: Tolerance analysis, error budgeting, geometric dimensioning, environmental effects, stray-light, materials selection, stress in optics.
4. Optical calculation softwares: ZEMAX, LightTools or TracePro.
5. Autoguiding systems. Wave front sensors.
6. Optical equipment: Spectrometers, monochromators, lasers, interferometers, autocollimators.
7. Alignment procedures in optical systems for Astronomy.

Needs and Conditions

IMPORTANT: Applications consisting of a cover letter with a full CV shall be submitted by email (Subject: “REF0040: Optical Engineer") to jobs@cefca.es by the above closing date. Not being a requirement, reference letters received in the same address before the deadline will be taken into account.