About Us

The Texas A&M University Munnerlyn Astronomical Instrumentation Laboratory designs and builds instruments for telescopes and creates projects that aid instrument and telescope design. Our instruments are used for our own and others' astronomical research and are designed using science goals that move forward the field of astronomy. Texas A&M graduate and undergraduate students work with us on all our instrumentation and research. We also frequently partner with other teams and institutions on a variety of instruments, projects, and research.

We design and construct large instruments like the Giant Magellan Telescope GMACS spectrograph and the Hobby-Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Survey VIRUS spectrographs. We also build smaller instruments like the ETSI instrument currently operating on McDonald Observatory's 82" telescope. Additionally, we work on projects that aid others' endeavors, such as constructing and testing primary mirror actuators for the GMT primary mirror test cell and designing a test bench that characterizes fiber optics. 

GMACS
GMACS
HETDEX VIRUS
HETDEX VIRUS
ETSI
ETSI
GMT mirror actuators
GMT mirror actuators
FOCUSS
FOCUSS

Our Lab

Our lab space is located in the Charles R. and Judith G. Munnerlyn Astronomy and Space Sciences Engineering Building. In addition to offices for faculty, staff, and students, we have large lab areas and dark rooms where we work on all our projects.

Faculty and Staff

Our lab is lead by Dr. Darren DePoy and Dr. Jennifer Marshall, both astronomers and professors at Texas A&M University. Two other astronomers, Dr. Luke Schmidt of Yerkes Observatory and Dr. Ryan Oelkers of University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, partner with us on all our current projects. The daily operations of the lab are managed by Erika Cook.
See more about our faculty and staff.

Dr. Darren DePoy
Dr. Jennifer Marshall
Dr. Luke Schmidt
Dr. Ryan Oelkers
Erika Cook

Students

Nearly all of our projects are worked on by graduate and undergraduate students from Texas A&M University. The students gain invaluable experience that only hands-on projects like these can provide. Additionally, students take part in our AggieSTAAR program every summer, where they work on their usual instrumentation projects or astronomical research projects and attend seminars that prepare them to be astronomers. We also take students to McDonald Observatory for the real observational astronomy experience.

Contact us!

We often partner with other institutions and teams for a variety of projects, and we are always excited to meet and work with new teams. Feel free to contact us through Dr. Jennifer Marshall at marshall@tamu.edu.