The colibri telescope array for KBO detection through serendipitous stellar occultations: A technical description
We present the technical design, construction and testing of the Colibri telescope array at Elginfield Observatory near London, Ontario, Canada. Three 50-cm telescopes are arranged in a triangular array and are separated by 110–160 m. During operation, they will monitor field stars at the intersecti...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2022-10-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences |
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| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fspas.2022.929573/full |
| _version_ | 1811198388218101760 |
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| author | Michael J. Mazur Stanimir Metchev Stanimir Metchev Rachel A. Brown Rachel A. Brown Ridhee Gupta Richard Bloch Tristan Mills Emily Pass |
| author_facet | Michael J. Mazur Stanimir Metchev Stanimir Metchev Rachel A. Brown Rachel A. Brown Ridhee Gupta Richard Bloch Tristan Mills Emily Pass |
| author_sort | Michael J. Mazur |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | We present the technical design, construction and testing of the Colibri telescope array at Elginfield Observatory near London, Ontario, Canada. Three 50-cm telescopes are arranged in a triangular array and are separated by 110–160 m. During operation, they will monitor field stars at the intersections of the ecliptic and galactic plane for serendipitous stellar occultations (SSOs) by trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs). At a frame rate of 40 frames per second (fps), Fresnel diffraction in the occultation light curve can be resolved and, with coincident detections, be used to estimate basic properties of the occulting object. Using off-the-shelf components, the Colibri system streams imagery to disk at a rate of 1.5 GB/s for next-day processing by a custom occultation detection pipeline.The imaging system has been tested and is found to perform well, given the moderate site conditions. Limiting magnitudes at 40 fps are found to be about 12.1 (temporal SNR = 5, visible light Gaia G band) with time-series standard deviations ranging from about 0.035 mag to >0.2 mag. SNR is observed to decrease linearly with magnitude for stars fainter than about G = 9.5 mag. Brighter than this limit, SNR is constant, suggesting that atmospheric scintillation is the dominant noise source. Astrometric solutions show errors typically less than ±0.3 pixels (0.8 arc seconds) without a need for high-order corrections. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-12T01:30:16Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-04d7153998fc4c34893cc5eb958e7adc |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2296-987X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-12T01:30:16Z |
| publishDate | 2022-10-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences |
| spelling | doaj.art-04d7153998fc4c34893cc5eb958e7adc2022-12-22T03:53:30ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences2296-987X2022-10-01910.3389/fspas.2022.929573929573The colibri telescope array for KBO detection through serendipitous stellar occultations: A technical descriptionMichael J. Mazur0Stanimir Metchev1Stanimir Metchev2Rachel A. Brown3Rachel A. Brown4Ridhee Gupta5Richard Bloch6Tristan Mills7Emily Pass8Department of Physics and Astronomy, Western University, London, ON, CanadaDepartment of Physics and Astronomy, Western University, London, ON, CanadaInstitute for Earth and Space Exploration, Western University, London, ON, CanadaDepartment of Physics and Astronomy, Western University, London, ON, CanadaInstitute for Earth and Space Exploration, Western University, London, ON, CanadaDepartment of Physics, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, CanadaDepartment of Physics and Astronomy, York University, Toronto, ON, CanadaDepartment of Physics and Astronomy, Western University, London, ON, CanadaCenter for Astrophysics, Harvard & Smithsonian, Cambridge, MA, United StatesWe present the technical design, construction and testing of the Colibri telescope array at Elginfield Observatory near London, Ontario, Canada. Three 50-cm telescopes are arranged in a triangular array and are separated by 110–160 m. During operation, they will monitor field stars at the intersections of the ecliptic and galactic plane for serendipitous stellar occultations (SSOs) by trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs). At a frame rate of 40 frames per second (fps), Fresnel diffraction in the occultation light curve can be resolved and, with coincident detections, be used to estimate basic properties of the occulting object. Using off-the-shelf components, the Colibri system streams imagery to disk at a rate of 1.5 GB/s for next-day processing by a custom occultation detection pipeline.The imaging system has been tested and is found to perform well, given the moderate site conditions. Limiting magnitudes at 40 fps are found to be about 12.1 (temporal SNR = 5, visible light Gaia G band) with time-series standard deviations ranging from about 0.035 mag to >0.2 mag. SNR is observed to decrease linearly with magnitude for stars fainter than about G = 9.5 mag. Brighter than this limit, SNR is constant, suggesting that atmospheric scintillation is the dominant noise source. Astrometric solutions show errors typically less than ±0.3 pixels (0.8 arc seconds) without a need for high-order corrections.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fspas.2022.929573/fullrobotic telescopeskuiper belt objectsoccultationphotometryfresnel diffraction |
| spellingShingle | Michael J. Mazur Stanimir Metchev Stanimir Metchev Rachel A. Brown Rachel A. Brown Ridhee Gupta Richard Bloch Tristan Mills Emily Pass The colibri telescope array for KBO detection through serendipitous stellar occultations: A technical description Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences robotic telescopes kuiper belt objects occultation photometry fresnel diffraction |
| title | The colibri telescope array for KBO detection through serendipitous stellar occultations: A technical description |
| title_full | The colibri telescope array for KBO detection through serendipitous stellar occultations: A technical description |
| title_fullStr | The colibri telescope array for KBO detection through serendipitous stellar occultations: A technical description |
| title_full_unstemmed | The colibri telescope array for KBO detection through serendipitous stellar occultations: A technical description |
| title_short | The colibri telescope array for KBO detection through serendipitous stellar occultations: A technical description |
| title_sort | colibri telescope array for kbo detection through serendipitous stellar occultations a technical description |
| topic | robotic telescopes kuiper belt objects occultation photometry fresnel diffraction |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fspas.2022.929573/full |
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