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obs:bootes_1 [2008/11/28 02:04] – focal length + fov matesobs:bootes_1 [Unknown date] (current) – external edit (Unknown date) 127.0.0.1
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 {{:obs:bootes-old1a.jpg?120 |}} {{:obs:bootes-old1a.jpg?120 |}}
  
-BOOTES was founded in 1997, with a single dome and a 20 cm Meade LX200 mount, piggybacked with two wide-field lenses with the idea to follow BATSE alerts and to perform automated scans of the sky. These old GRB alerts had large uncertrainities, so only wide-field observation was considered important. Two SBIG ST-8 cameras with Nikkor 50 mm 1:1.2 lenses were used. They had a field of view 16 x 11 degrees, limiting magnitude ~14.0, and were mounted perpendicularly to each other. Obtained images were analyzed with a specialised pipeline designed for an accelerator board Photomate 20 with two signal processors Texas Instruments TMS320C40 [[http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/10853853_113|(Petr Páta et al., 2001)]].+BOOTES was founded in 1998, with a single dome and a 20 cm Meade LX200 mount, piggybacked with two wide-field lenses with the idea to follow BATSE alerts and to perform automated scans of the sky. These old GRB alerts had large uncertrainities, so only wide-field observation was considered important. Two SBIG ST-8 cameras with Nikkor 50 mm 1:1.2 lenses were used. They had a field of view 16 x 11 degrees, limiting magnitude ~14.0, and were mounted perpendicularly to each other. Obtained images were analyzed with a specialised pipeline designed for an accelerator board Photomate 20 with two signal processors Texas Instruments TMS320C40 [[http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/10853853_113|(Petr Páta et al., 2001)]]. 
  
 ===== Instrumentation ===== ===== Instrumentation =====
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 {{ :obs:bootes1b-2008.jpg?200|BOOTES-1B}} {{ :obs:bootes1b-2008.jpg?200|BOOTES-1B}}
    
-BOOTES-1B is a 30 cm Meade Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope on a fast slewing Paramount-ME mount, equipped with an Andor iXon 889 512x512 pixel EMCCD camera. It's primary objective is follow-up of satellite GRB alerts. It can interrupt the ongoing observation,  slew and start acquiring images of the proposed GRB location with a typical delay of 30s after the alert reception. Typical limiting magnitude of the earliest 2-second unfiltered exposures is 15. Later, with 60s exposures, a limiting magnitude of about 18 can be achieved. +BOOTES-1B is a 30 cm Meade Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope on a fast slewing Paramount-ME mount, equipped with a FLI CM-8 1536x1024 pixel (Kodak KAF1602) CCD camera. It's primary objective is follow-up of satellite GRB alerts. It can interrupt the ongoing observation,  slew and start acquiring images of the proposed GRB location with a typical delay of 30s after the alert reception. Typical limiting magnitude of the earliest 10-second unfiltered exposures is 15. Later, with longer exposures, a limiting magnitude of about 18 can be achieved. 
  
-The telescope observes without filters to maximize throughput. Its current configuration with the Meade 1:6.3 focal reducer and the CCD provides an image scale of 1.96”/pixel and a field of view of 16.7'x16.7' (F=1684mm, or f/5.5).+The telescope observes without filters to maximize throughput. Its current configuration with the Meade 1:6.3 focal reducer and the CCD provides an image scale of 1.05”/pixel and a field of view of 26.8'x17.8' (F=1771mm, or f/5.8).
  
 Since its installation the telescope has followed 5 GRBs with positive detections. These are GRB 080330, GRB 080413A, GRB 080430, GRB 080603B and GRB 080605.  Since its installation the telescope has followed 5 GRBs with positive detections. These are GRB 080330, GRB 080413A, GRB 080430, GRB 080603B and GRB 080605. 
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 ===== Weather sensing ===== ===== Weather sensing =====
 +
 +As an independent robotic observatory, BOOTES has various devices to sense the weather. Currently, a multi level decision model in order to decide whether to observe or not. The following detectors are used during the decision whether the observation is possible or not. 
 +
 +  * Manual blocking (implemented, in use)
 +  * Rain sensor (implemented, in use)
 +  * Weather sensor tower (implemented, intended to use for a humidity alert, not used now)
 +  * Cloud-meter (implemented, in use)
 +  * Allsky camera (implemented, not integrated into rts2)
 +  * Meteosat image processing (implemented, never used)
 +
  
  
obs/bootes_1.1227834251.txt.gz · Last modified: 2008/11/28 00:00 (external edit)