Instrumentation for the Citizen CATE Experiment: Faroe Islands and Indonesia

Penn, Matthew; Baer, Robert; Bosh, Robert; Garrison, David; Gelderman, Richard; Hare, Honor; Isberner, Fred; Jensen, Logan; Kovac, Sarah; McKay, Myles; Mitchell, Adrianna; Pierce, Michael; Thompson, Patricia; Ursache, Andrei; Varsik, J.; Walter, Donald K.; Watson, Z.; Young, D. T.

doi:10.1088/1538-3873/129/971/015005

Cited by 6 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…In 2016 the Point Grey Grasshopper USB3 5 Mpix monochrome camera model GS3-U3-51S5M-C was used at several sites in Indonesia. The detector, a Sony IMX250 CMOS array with a global reset was found to be superior to the array used in the 2015 Faroe Islands eclipse project (Penn et al 2017). The camera was the most expensive element of the CATE instrument, and unfortunately no corporate sponsor was found to provide the camera.…”

Section: Cmos Cameramentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The likelihood of a CME happening during any total eclipse is low, but CMEs did occur in both the 2008 and 2012 total solar eclipses (Pasachoff et al 2009(Pasachoff et al , 2015. The 2017 total solar eclipse presented a unique opportunity (Hudson et al 2011), and the Citizen Continental-America Telescopic Eclipse (CATE) Experiment was developed to exploit this opportunity (Penn et al 2017). The experiment provided identical sets of equipment to a diverse set of trained volunteer observers and collected a long time-sequence of white light images of the inner corona.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Acceleration of Coronal Mass Ejection Plasma in the Low Corona as Measured by the Citizen CATE Experiment

Penn

Baer

Walter

et al. 2019

PASP

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The citizen Continental-America Telescopic Eclipse (CATE) Experiment was a new type of citizen science experiment designed to capture a time sequence of white-light coronal observations during totality from 17:16 to 18:48 UT on 2017 August 21. Using identical instruments the CATE group imaged the inner corona from 1 to 2.1 RSun with 1.″43 pixels at a cadence of 2.1 s. A slow coronal mass ejection (CME) started on the SW limb of the Sun before the total eclipse began. An analysis of CATE data from 17:22 to 17:39 UT maps the spatial distribution of coronal flow velocities from about 1.2 to 2.1 RSun, and shows the CME material accelerates from about 0 to 200 km s−1 across this part of the corona. This CME is observed by LASCO C2 at 3.1–13 RSun with a constant speed of 254 km s−1. The CATE and LASCO observations are not fit by either constant acceleration nor spatially uniform velocity change, and so the CME acceleration mechanism must produce variable acceleration in this region of the corona.

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Section: Cmos Cameramentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Acceleration of Coronal Mass Ejection Plasma in the Low Corona as Measured by the Citizen CATE Experiment

Penn

Baer

Walter

et al. 2019

PASP

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“…CATE24, a next-generation evolution of the originally successful Citizen CATE experiment for the 2017 total eclipse (Penn et al, 2017(Penn et al, , 2020, will deploy 35 identical setups to locations all along the path of the 2024 April 8 total solar eclipse to make broadband polarimetric observations of the corona between about 1 and 3 R ⊙ . Barring bad weather along the eclipse path, the experiment is expected to return over an hour of continuous coronal observations, which can be used to characterize structure and dynamics in a region of the corona that has historically been under-observed.…”

Section: Catecor Design Equipment and Proceduresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Observations of the Polarized Solar Corona During the Annular Eclipse of October 14, 2023

Seaton,

Caspi,

Alzate

et al. 2024

Preprint

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We present results of a dual eclipse expedition to observe the solar corona from two sites during the annular solar eclipse of 2023 October 14, using a novel coronagraph designed to be accessible for amateurs and students to build and deploy. The coronagraph CATEcor builds on the standardized eclipse observing equipment developed for the Citizen CATE 2024 experiment. The observing sites were selected for likelihood of clear observations, for historic relevance (near the Climax site in the Colorado Rocky Mountains), and for centrality to the annular eclipse path (atop Sandia Peak above Albuquerque, New Mexico). The novel portion of CATEcor is an external occulter assembly that slips over the front of a conventional dioptric telescope, forming a \textit{shaded-truss} externally occulted coronagraph. CATEcor is specifically designed to be easily constructed in a garage or ''makerspace'' environment. We successfully observed the solar corona to an altitude of approximately 2.25 RSun during the annular phases of the eclipse.

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“…Third Row: KELT-16b (11.898 V-mag; Left) observed with an 11 inch (27.94 cm) telescope and WASP-43b (V-mag=12.4) observed with a 4.5 inch (11.43 cm) Unistellar eVscope (Marchis et al 2020). Bottom: HD189733b (V-mag=7.648) observed with a 3.15 inch (8 cm) Citizen CATE (Penn et al 2017(Penn et al , 2019. All the data sets, except WASP-43b, were operated and/or reduced by amateur astronomers and the first five lightcurves were fully reduced with EXOTIC (Section 3).…”

Section: Demonstrating and Forecasting The Capability Of Small Telesc...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Utilizing Small Telescopes Operated by Citizen Scientists for Transiting Exoplanet Follow-up

Zellem

Pearson

Blaser

et al. 2020

PASP

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Due to the efforts by numerous ground-based surveys and NASA's Kepler and TESS, there will be hundreds, if not thousands, of transiting exoplanets ideal for atmospheric characterization via spectroscopy with large platforms such as JWST and ARIEL. However their next predicted mid-transit time could become so increasingly uncertain over time that significant overhead would be required to ensure the detection of the entire transit. As a result, follow-up observations to characterize these exoplanetary atmospheres would require less-efficient use of an observatory's time-which is an issue for large platforms where minimizing observing overheads is a necessity. Here we demonstrate the power of citizen scientists operating smaller observatories (≤1-m) to keep ephemerides "fresh", defined here as when the 1σ uncertainty in the mid-transit time is less than half the transit duration. We advocate for the creation of a community-wide effort to perform ephemeris maintenance on transiting exoplanets by citizen scientists. Such observations can be conducted with even a 6-inch telescope, which has the potential to save up to ∼8000 days for a 1000-planet survey. Based on a preliminary analysis of 14 transits from a single 6-inch MicroObservatory telescope, we empirically estimate the ability of small telescopes to benefit the community. Observations with a small-telescope network operated by citizen scientists are capable of resolving stellar blends to within 5"/pixel, can follow-up long period transits in short-baseline TESS fields, monitor epoch-to-epoch stellar variability at a precision 0.67%±0.12% for a 11.3 V-mag star, and search for new planets or constrain the masses of known planets with transit timing variations greater than two minutes.

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Instrumentation for the Citizen CATE Experiment: Faroe Islands and Indonesia

Abstract: The inner regions of the solar corona from 1-2.5 Rsun are poorly sampled both from the ground and space telescopes. A solar eclipse reduces the sky scattered background intensity by a factor of about 10,

Cited by 6 publications

References 15 publications

Acceleration of Coronal Mass Ejection Plasma in the Low Corona as Measured by the Citizen CATE Experiment

Acceleration of Coronal Mass Ejection Plasma in the Low Corona as Measured by the Citizen CATE Experiment

Observations of the Polarized Solar Corona During the Annular Eclipse of October 14, 2023

Utilizing Small Telescopes Operated by Citizen Scientists for Transiting Exoplanet Follow-up

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