First look at HRCAM images from Dome A, Antarctica

Sims, Geoff; Ashley, M. C. B.; Cui, Xiangqun; Li, Feng; Gong, Xuefei; Hu, Zhongwen; Lawrence, Jon; Luong-Van, D.; Shang, Zhaohui; Storey, J. W. V.; Tothill, N.; Wang, Lifan; Yang, Huigen; Yang, Ji; Xu, Zhiyong; Zhu, Zhenxi

doi:10.1017/s1743921312016651

Cited by 3 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 3 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The High Resolution CAMera (HRCAM) was an all-sky camera, built with a Canon EOS 50D digital SLR camera and a Sigma 4.5-mm f/2.8 fish-eye lens (Sims et al 2013). It took images every few minutes with a full sky coverage, and the cadence was mostly limited by the lifetime of the camera's shutter.…”

Section: Hrcammentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Other than AST3 and CSTAR, although the main purpose is for site testing to monitoring the sky background and extinction, the data of wide-field cameras, such as Gattini, HRCAM, and KLCAM, can also be used for timeserious analysis of very bright stars (Yang et al 2017;Sims et al 2013;Yang et al 2020) and the potential is yet to be explored more.…”

Section: Variable Starsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Astronomy from Dome A in Antarctica

Shang

2020

Res. Astron. Astrophys.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Dome A in Antarctica has been demonstrated to be the best site on earth for optical, infrared, and terahertz astronomical observations by more and more evidence, such as excellent free-atmosphere seeing, extremely low perceptible water vapor, low sky background, and continuous dark time, etc. In this paper, we present a complete picture of the development of astronomy at Dome A from the very beginning, review recent progress in time-domain astronomy, demonstrate exciting results of the site testing, and address the challenges in instrumentation. Currently proposed projects are briefly discussed.

show abstract

Section: Hrcammentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Variable Starsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Astronomy from Dome A in Antarctica

Shang

2020

Res. Astron. Astrophys.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…We use an all sky camera (ASC hereafter) to monitor the cloud coverage of the sky during the day, as well as in the night. Mandat et al (2014) and Sims et al (2013) also used an ASC for night sky monitoring. Night sky brightness restricts the signal-to-noise ratio that the telescope can reach for a given exposure time.…”

Section: Natural Conditions For Astronomical Observationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This new ASC is composed of a Canon 600D digital SLR camera and a Sigma 4.5 mm f/2.8 fisheye lens. We managed to change the control platform from a Windows ® PC to an ARM-based computer running Linux, just like the HRCAM at Dome A (Sims et al 2013). But our system can save images into FITS files directly to this ARM-based computer without further conversion.…”

Section: Statistics On Annual Observing Nightsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optical Observing Conditions at Delingha Station

Jian-feng

Deng

Zhang

et al. 2016

PASP

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

SONG is a global ground based network of 1 meter telescopes for stellar time-domain science, an international collaboration involving many countries across the world. In order to enable a favourable duty cycle, the SONG network plans to create a homogeneous distribution of 4 nodes in each of the northern and southern hemispheres. A natural possibility was building one of the northern nodes in East Asia, preferably on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. During the last decade, a great deal of effort has been invested in searching for high a quality site for ground based astronomy in China, since this has been one of the major concerns for the development of Chinese astronomy. A number of sites on the plateau have been in operation for many years, but most of them are used only for radio astronomy, as well as small optical telescopes for applied astronomy. Several potential sites for large optical instruments have been identified by the plateau site survey, but as yet none of them have been adequately quantitatively characterised. Here we present results from a detailed multi-year study of the Delingha site, which was eventually selected for the SONG-China node. We also describe the site monitoring system that will allow an isolated SONG and 50BiN node to operate safely in an automated mode.-2nodes which aims to study edge-cutting problems, namely determining detailed internal structures of oscillating stars and looking for Earth-like planetary systems revealed by micro-lensing events. In order to achieve a high duty cycle within a limited budget and to produce homogenous data, a network of identical 1 meter telescope and instruments is planned, which includes 4 nodes almost homogeneously distributed in geographic latitude on each hemisphere (Grundahl et al. 2008). To form such a network in the north, one node must be located in East Asia. Then it is straightforward to plan the remaining 3 sites, in terms of geographic distribution and site quality, in the Canary Islands, the Hawaiian islands and the western Pacific coast of the US. However, due to the global climate pattern, it is unclear whether East Asia is likely to contain a site that can match the quality of those other three oustanding locations, which is necessary to optimize the network's duty-cycle. The Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau provides our best chance to find a site that can deliver data of both quality and quantity that matches the other nodes.During the last decade, the search for a high quality site for ground based astronomy has been one of the major concerns for the development of general-purpose astronomy in China. A great deal of effort has been invested towards this goal over recent years. Since the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau has a high altitude, dry climate and obviously low light pollution, it has naturally been searched for future high-quality sites. A specific research group to perform site surveys in the west land of western China has been organized (Yao 2005). Some sites, including Oma and Ali, were then selected for detailed site testing measurements...

show abstract

Cloud cover and aurora contamination at dome A in 2017 from KLCAM

Shang

et al. 2020

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Dome A in Antarctica has many characteristics that make it an excellent site for astronomical observations, from the optical to the terahertz. Quantitative site testing is still needed to confirm the site’s properties. In this paper, we present a statistical analysis of cloud cover and aurora contamination from the Kunlun Cloud and Aurora Monitor (KLCAM). KLCAM is an automatic unattended all-sky camera aiming for long-term monitoring of the usable observing time and optical sky background at Dome A. It was installed at Dome A in January 2017, worked through the austral winter, and collected over 47 000 images over 490 d. A semi-quantitative visual data analysis of cloud cover and auroral contamination was carried out by five individuals. The analysis shows that the night sky was free of clouds for 83 per cent of the time, which ranks Dome A highly in a comparison with other observatory sites. Although aurorae were detected somewhere on an image for nearly 45 per cent of the time, the chance of a point on the sky being affected by an aurora is small. The strongest auroral emission lines can be filtered out with customized filters.

show abstract

First look at HRCAM images from Dome A, Antarctica

Cited by 3 publications

References 3 publications

Astronomy from Dome A in Antarctica

Astronomy from Dome A in Antarctica

Optical Observing Conditions at Delingha Station

Cloud cover and aurora contamination at dome A in 2017 from KLCAM

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About