Small IRAIT a Telescope for the Polar Night

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Small IRAITa Telescope for the Polar Night
Runa Briguglio Astronomy PhD Univ Rome La
Sapienza
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Concordia, Dome CHigh Antarctic Plateau

• 75 6 S 123 21 E
• Altitude 3200 m
• Mean T (summer) -30C
• Mean T (winter) -70C
• Complete isolation
• from february to november

Advantages for astronomy

• Excellent seeing conditions
• High sky transparency
• stability

• Low thermal emission
• IR windows
• Long polar night

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The Polar Night

• Last sunset may 3rd
• First sunrise august 11th

Green flash on the moon
3 months uninterrupted acquisitions 0.1 uHz
sidelobes
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Hard work for astronomers.
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The telescope
Cassegrain 25 cm F/12 Eq. Fork mount Cryogenic
motors
CCD FliCam ME2 Pixel 768x512 9um Digital
focuser Filterwheel UBVRI
Fully automatic Remotely controlled High
stability Redundant equipment
performed sequential pointing at seasonal world
temp. record -81.9C
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Implementation at Dome C 3 points
Control Tower Pc (remote control) Data
storage Preliminary analysis Visual control
Data acquisition Temperature control Remote
indicators Control loop
300 m
Wi-Fi
Pilot Pc (telescope guiding) Navigator Pc
(life conditions) Manual/remote controls Power
10 m
Data Power Sensors
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What do we mean with remote control.
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Some problems.
Snowmechanics
Iceoptics
Frozen nose etc ?
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Winter activity

• Standard stars acquisition
• Blazar PKS 2155
• Cluster (NGC 3293)
• V841 Cen (surface spotted star)
• 10 days, 98 duty cycle

250 hours V, R run (V841-comp)
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Concerning AGB

• Goal
• Acquire luminosity
• Extrapolate present luminosity
• from period (Maffei)
• Compare acquired vs calculated luminosity

20 fields acquired
V3940 Sgr V3942 Sgr GG Ser FY Ser HV Ser HU Ser
KO Ser V3908 Sgr V424 Sgt KW Ser GR Ser IK Ser HY
Ser
V407 Sct LQ Ser V417 Ser V406 Sct HT Ser
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IK Ser
HY Ser
V3940 SGR
Two main difficulties
HT Ser
Expected R, I mag up to 16, too faint for 25
cm! Mean dec -15, near the horizon!
HV Ser
HU Ser
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thanks for your attention
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