The Atacama Cosmology Telescope is a 6 m telescope designed to map the cosmic microwave background simultaneously at 145, 215, and 280 GHz with arcminute resolution. Each frequency will have a 32 by 32 element focal plane array of transition edge sensor bolometers. The telescope and the cold reimaging optics are optimized for millimeter-wave observations with these sensitive detectors. The desi...

The Large APEX Bolometer Camera, LABOCA, has been commissioned for operation as a new facility instrument at the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment 12 m submillimeter telescope. This new 295-bolometer total power camera, operating in the 870 μm atmospheric window, combined with the high efficiency of APEX and the excellent atmospheric transmission at the site, offers unprecedented capability in mapp...

The Cosmic Background Imager (CBI) is a 13-element interferometer designed to image intrinsic anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) on arcminute scales. A review of the capabilities of the instrument is presented, together with a discussion of observations which have been taken over the past 9 months from the Atacama desert of Chile. We present preliminary high-resolution mosaic...

Extensive post-main sequence mass loss occurs for low and intermediate mass stars on the asymptotic giant branch (AGB), and for the higher mass stars during their red supergiant evolution. These winds aaect the evolution of the stars profoundly, as well as the enrichment of the interstellar medium with heavy elements and grain particles. The mass loss on the AGB is the by far the most well stud...