School of Physics Colloquium: Prof. Barth Netterfield, University of Toronto

Balloon borne telescopes can achieve much of the promise of satellite borne experiments, at a fraction of the cost, while providing important tests for upcoming satellite missions. Tour tonne telescopes can be launched above 99.5% of the atmosphere for flights flights up up to several weeks. I will discuss the performance and preliminary results from the recent BLASTpol submm telescope, and discuss the performance of the recent Spider mm-wave telescope. Additionally, the advent of Super-pressure Balloon missions will permit flights of up to 100 nights, opening up the potential of visible and near UV diffraction-limited imaging.  I will discuss the upcoming BIT and SuperBIT missions designed to take early advantage of this new capability.