Antarctica Schmidt telescopes
| Alternative names | The Antarctic Schmidt/Survey Telescopes |
|---|---|
| Location(s) | Antarctica |
| Coordinates | 80°25′S 77°07′E / 80.42°S 77.12°E |
Location of Antarctica Schmidt telescopes | |
The Antarctica Schmidt Telescopes project (also known as Antarctic Survey Telescopes (AST3)) is a joint project between Texas A&M University (TAMU) and the Beijing Astronomical Observatory to build three small (50cm aperture) different-filtered wide-field telescopes at the Antarctic Kunlun Station near Dome A in Antarctica. Lifan Wang at TAMU is the main instigator of the project. [1][2][3]
These telescopes will take advantage of the low background and the long Antarctic nights to provide high-accuracy photometric time series for finding extrasolar planets, and to observe wide fields in the infrared to look for new supernovae.
The first of three Antarctic Survey Telescopes AST3-1, was installed at the Antarctic Kunlun Station in April 2012. The 2nd and 3rd telescopes were installed in 2015 and 2021, respectively.[4][5]
An update was published indicating that the first telescope operated for only a few weeks in 2012 before a power failure, and was repaired in 2013, but the CCD controller proceeded to fail after further data collection. The AST3-2 unit has seen several design revisions to improve reliability in the harsh Antarctic environment, and was tested over the 2013-2014 winter in Mohe, China before being sent to the field.[6]
The AST3-3 telescope is equipped with a near-infrared camera (AST3-NIR) to perform the Kunlun Infrared Sky Survey.[7]
See also
References
- ^ "Antarctic Schmidt Telescopes". physics.tamu.edu. Archived from the original on 2009-08-21.
- ^ "China to build stronger telescope network in South Pole". China.org.cn. July 24, 2009.
- ^ "Optical system of the Three Antarctic Survey Telescopes" (PDF). Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. December 22, 2011. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2013-05-10.
- ^ Yang, Xu; Hu, Yi; Shang, Zhaohui; Ma, Bin; Ashley, Michael C. B.; Cui, Xiangqun; Du, Fujia; Fu, Jianning; Gong, Xuefei (2023-02-14), "Data release of the AST3-2 automatic survey from Dome A, Antarctica", Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 520 (4): 5635–5650, arXiv:2302.06997, doi:10.1093/mnras/stad498, retrieved 2025-11-22
- ^ Sun, Tianrui; Li, Xiaoyan; Hu, Lei; Meng, Kelai; Han, Zijian; Hu, Maokai; Li, Zhengyang; Wen, Haikun; Du, Fujia (2022-06-13), "Antarctic Survey Telescope 3-3: Overview, System Performance and Preliminary Observations at Yaoan, Yunnan", Universe, 8 (6): 303, arXiv:2206.03170, Bibcode:2022Univ....8..303S, doi:10.3390/universe8060303, retrieved 2025-11-22
- ^ "Updates of AST3 Survey" (PDF). www.astronomy.scar.org. 2013-07-25. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-06-10.
- ^ Zheng, Jessica R.; Lawrence, Jon; Content, Robert; Churilov, Vladimir; Zhang, Kaiyuan; Yuan, Xiangyan; Lu, Haiping (August 2016). Angeli, George Z.; Dierickx, Philippe (eds.). "Antarctic Surveying Telescope (AST3-3) NIR camera for the Kunlun Infrared Sky Survey (KISS): thermal optimization and system performance". Modeling, Systems Engineering, and Project Management for Astronomy VI. 9911: 99111H. Bibcode:2016SPIE.9911E..1HZ. doi:10.1117/12.2231065. ISSN 0277-786X.