The site testing shows that Antarctic Dome A is one of the best site on earth for astronomical observations, for wavelength ranging from visible to infrared and sub-millimeter. Continuous observation for nearly four months in polar nights makes Dome A quite suitable for time domain astronomy. In the past decade CCAA already led a series of Antarctic astronomy activities and telescope projects which will be introduced in this paper. The first generation telescope is Chinese Small Telescope Array known as CSTAR, which was composed of four identical telescopes with 145mm entrance pupil, 20 square degrees FOV and different filters, all pointing to the celestial South Point, mainly used for variable stars detection and site testing. The telescope was deployed in Dome A in Jan. 2008, and followed by automatic observations for four consecutive winters. Three Antarctic Survey Telescopes (AST3) is the second generation telescope capable of pointing and tracking in very low temperature, with 500mm entrance pupil, 8.5 square degree FOV. AST3-1 and AST3-2 were respectively mounted on Dome A in Jan. 2012 and 2015, fully remotely controlled for supernovae survey and exoplanets searching. In Aug. 2017, AST3-2 successfully detected the optical counterpart of LIGO Source GW 170817. Now AST3-3 is under development for both optical and near infrared sky survey by matching different cameras. Based on the experience of the above smaller sized optical telescopes, the 2.5m Kunlun Dark Universe Survey Telescope (KDUST) was proposed for high resolution imaging over wide field of view. Currently the KDUST proposal was submitted to the government and waiting for project review.
Based on our experiences on developing software for Antarctica Survey Telescope (AST3), we propose a software standard of controlling and operating system for real unattended robotic observatories. Besides automaticity, this standard addresses special issues of high availability, fault-tolerance, power efficiency, etc., which are much less important for matured observatories but become crucial for real unattended observatories, e.g., Antarctica sites or space telescope. Our recommended standard defines sets of common instructions to operate all the facilities of an observatory. For each instruction, the standard specifies its function, how it responses when a hardware or software exception arises and informs users in detail. Then it specifies an application programming interface (API) so that user programs know how to call it to execute a certain operation. Finally, we propose feasible inter process communication protocols for the API implementation as well as managing the special redundant hardware. By calling the universal API users can easily develop their own software to control and operate an astronomical observatory robustly and fully automatically with minimum human intervention, even if their devices are highly customized.
The seeing at Dome A, Antarctica is expected to be similar to the superb seeing at Dome C, a median of about 0:003. However, there has not been direct night seeing measurement yet, because unattended DIMM (Differential Image Motion Monitor) is hard to be operated automatically over the winter at Dome A. To solve this problem, we propose an automatic DIMM for Kunlun Station at Dome A, named KLDIMM. Here we will present the hardware design, software system and results of cold laboratory test. This system will be tested at sites in China and calibrated to other DIMMs, then installed on an 8-m tall customized tower at Dome A in January 2019.
Kunlun Cloud and Aurora Monitor (KLCAM) is an all-sky camera with intensive thermal control designs specifically for the harsh environment at Dome A, Antarctica. The prototype of KLCAM was installed at Kunlun Station, Dome A in early 2017 and has worked under unattended condition non-stop through the polar nights successfully. KLCAM collects data for site testing as well as providing real-time observing conditions for the operation of the Antarctic Survey Telescope (AST3).
We present a new application of frame transfer Charge-Coupled Device (CCD) on measuring astronomical seeing. If a telescope is equipped with a shutterless, frame transfer CCD camera, a bright star will generate a trail during the frame transfer phase. Because the transfer is very fast, the trail is a series of short exposures (about 1 ms) of the target star. Therefore the centroid is jittery due to atmospheric turbulence, and the amplitude can be utilized to derive astronomical seeing. We present the preliminary results from STA1600FT CCD on the second Antarctic Survey Telescope (AST3) tested in China. The trail seeing moderately agrees with the simultaneous DIMM seeing.
The Antarctic Survey Telescope-AST3 consists of three optical telescopes with 680mm primary mirror and 8 square degree field of view, mainly for observations of supernovas and extrasolar planets searching from Antarctic Dome A. The first two AST3 telescopes (AST3-1 and AST3-2) were successfully installed on Dome A by Chinese expedition team in Jan. 2012 and Jan. 2015 separately. Multi-anti-frost methods were designed for AST3-2 and the automatic observations are keeping on from March 2016. The best limited magnitude is 19.4m with exposure time 60s in G band. The third AST3 will have switchable interface for both optical camera and near infrared camera optimized for k dark band survey. Now the telescope is under development in NIAOT and the K-band camera is under development in AAO.
We have developed a specialized software package, called ast3suite, to achieve the remote control and automatic sky survey for AST3 (Antarctic Survey Telescope) from scratch. It includes several daemon servers and many basic commands. Each program does only one single task, and they work together to make AST3 a robotic telescope. A survey script calls basic commands to carry out automatic sky survey. Ast3suite was carefully tested in Mohe, China in 2013 and has been used at Dome, Antarctica in 2015 and 2016 with the real hardware for practical sky survey. Both test results and practical using showed that ast3suite had worked very well without any manual auxiliary as we expected.
We have successfully operated the AST3 telescope remotely as well as robotically for time-domain sky survey in 2015 and 2016. We have set up a real-time system to support the operation of the unattended telescope, monitoring the status of all instruments as well as the weather conditions. The weather tower also provides valuable information of the site at the highest plateau in Antarctica, demonstrating the extremely stable atmosphere above the ground and implying excellent seeing at Dome A.
Twilight/night sky images are often used for flat-fielding CCD images, but the brightness gradient in twilight/ night sky causes problems of accurate flat-field correction in astronomical images for wide-field telescopes. Using data from the Antarctic Survey Telescope (AST3), we found that when the sky brightness gradient is minimum and stable, there is still a gradient of 1% across AST3’s field-of-view of 4.3 square degrees. We tested various approaches to remove the varying gradients in individual flat-field images. Our final optimal method can reduce the spatially dependent errors caused by the gradient to the negligible level. We also suggest a guideline of flat-fielding using twilight/night sky images for wide-field robotic autonomous telescopes.
The photon transfer curve (PTC, variance vs. signal level) is a commonly used and effective tool in characterizing CCD performance. It is theoretically linear in the range where photon shot noise dominates, and its slope is utilized to derive the gain of the CCD. However, recent researches on different CCDs have revealed that the variance progressively drops at high signal levels, while the linearity shown by signal versus exposure time is still excellent and unaffected. On the other hand, bright stars are found to exhibit fatter point spread function (PSF). Both nonlinear PTC and the brighter-fatter effect are regarded as the result of spreading of charges between pixels, an interaction progress increasing with signal level. In this work we investigate the nonlinear PTC based on the images with a STA1600FT CCD camera, whose PTC starts to become nonlinear at about 1/3 full well. To explain the phenomenon, we present a model to characterize the charge-sharing PSF. This signal-dependent PSF can be derived from flat-field frames, and allow us to quantify the effects on photometry and measured shape of stars. This effect is essentially critical for projects requiring accurate photometry and shape parameters.
We have developed a new method to correct dark current at relatively high temperatures for Charge-Coupled Device (CCD) images when dark frames cannot be obtained on the telescope. For images taken with the Antarctic Survey Telescopes (AST3) in 2012, due to the low cooling efficiency, the median CCD temperature was -46°C, resulting in a high dark current level of about 3e−/pix/sec, even comparable to the sky brightness (10e−/pix/sec). If not corrected, the nonuniformity of the dark current could even overweight the photon noise of the sky background. However, dark frames could not be obtained during the observing season because the camera was operated in frame-transfer mode without a shutter, and the telescope was unattended in winter. Here we present an alternative, but simple and effective method to derive the dark current frame from the scientific images. Then we can scale this dark frame to the temperature at which the scientific images were taken, and apply the dark frame corrections to the scientific images. We have applied this method to the AST3 data, and demonstrated that it can reduce the noise to a level roughly as low as the photon noise of the sky brightness, solving the high noise problem and improving the photometric precision. This method will also be helpful for other projects that suffer from similar issues.
The AST3 project consists of three large field of view survey telescopes with 680mm primary mirror, mainly for observations of supernovas and extrasolar planets searching from Antarctic Dome A where is very likely to be the best astronomical site on earth for astronomical observations from optical wavelength to thermal infrared and beyond, according to the four years site testing works by CCAA, UNSW and PRIC. The first AST3 was mounted on Dome A in Jan. 2012 and automatically run from March to May 2012. Based on the onsite winterization performance of the first AST3, some improvements such as the usage of high resolution encoders, defrosting method, better thermal control and easier onsite assembly et al were done for the second one. The winterization observation of AST3-2 in Mohe was carried on from Nov. 2013 to Apr. 2014, where is the most northern and coldest part of China with the lowest temperature around -50°. The technical modifications and testing observation results will be given in this paper. The third AST3 will be optimized from optical to thermal infrared aiming diffraction limited imaging with K band. Thus the whole AST3 project will be a good test bench for the development of future larger aperture optical/infrared Antarctic telescopes such as the proposed 2.5m Kunlun Dark Universe Survey Telescope project.
A 10k x 10k single-chip CCD camera was installed on the first Antarctic Survey Telescope (AST3-1) at Dome A,
Antarctica in January 2012. The pixel size is 9 μm, corresponding to 1 arcsec on the focal plane. The CCD runs
without shutter but in frame transfer mode, and is cooled by thermoelectric cooler (TEC) to take advantage
of the low air temperature at Dome A. We tested the performance of the camera in detail, including the gain,
linearity, readout noise, dark current, charge transfer efficiency, etc. As this camera is designed to work at Dome
A, where the lowest air temperature could go down to −80°C in winter, we tested to cool not only the CCD
chip but also the controller which usually is operated at normal temperatures for ground-based telescopes. We
found that the performance of the camera changes a little when the controller is cooled.
The preliminary site testing carried out since the beginning of 2008 shows the Antarctic Dome A is very likely to be the
best astronomical site on earth even better than Dome C and suitable for observations ranging from optical wavelength to
infrared and sub-millimeter. After the Chinese Small Telescope Array (CSTAR) which is composed of four small fixed
telescopes with diameter of 145mm and mounted on Dome A in 2008 for site testing and variable star monitor, three
Antarctic Survey Telescopes (AST3) were proposed for observations of supernovas and extrasolar planets searching.
AST3 is composed of 3 large field of view catadioptric telescopes with 500mm entrance diameter and G, R, I filter for
each. The telescopes can point and track autonomously along with a light and foldable dome to keep the snow and icing
build up. A precise auto-focusing mechanism is designed to make the telescope work at the right focus under large
temperature difference. The control and tracking components and assembly were successfully tested at from normal
temperature down to -80 Celsius degree. Testing observations of the first AST3 showed it can deliver good and uniform
images over the field of 8 square degrees. The first telescope was successfully mounted on Dome A in Jan. 2012 and the
automatic observations were started from Mar. 2012.
The first of the trio Antarctic Survey Telescopes (AST3) has been deployed to Dome A, Antarctica in January
2012. This largest optical survey telescope in Antarctica is equipped with a 10k × 10k CCD. The huge amount of
data, limited satellite communication bandwidth, low temperature, low pressure and limited energy supply all
place challenges to the control and operation of the telescope. We have developed both the hardware and software
systems to operate the unattended telescope and carry out the survey automatically. Our systems include the
main survey control, data storage, real-time pipeline, and database, for all of which we have dealt with various
technical difficulties. These include developing customized computer systems and data storage arrays working at
the harsh environment, temperature control for the disk arrays, automatic and fast data reduction in real-time,
and building robust database system.
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