RTS2: a powerful robotic observatory manager

Kubánek, P.; Jelínek, M.; Vítek, Stanislav; Postigo, A. de Ugarte; Nekola, Martin; French, J.

doi:10.1117/12.672045

Cited by 24 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…Unfortunately, the source lies in the Galactic plane, in the direction of an extremely crowded and exinct region, making any search for its optical/NIR counterpart challenging. During the 2006 and 2010 outbursts, no optical/NIR counterpart was detected (Kubanek et al 2006;Khamitov et al 2006;Blustin et al 2006;Melandri et al 2006;Yang et al 2010). Furthermore, no X-ray counterpart could be detected with a 1.1 ks observation carried out with the Chandra satellite during the fading phase of the 2010 outburst (Chakrabarty et al 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A search for the near-infrared counterpart of the eclipsing millisecond X-ray pulsar Swift J1749.4–2807

D’Avanzo

Campana

Muñoz-Darias

et al. 2011

A&A

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Context. Swift J1749.4-2807 is a transient accreting millisecond X-ray pulsars and the first to display X-ray eclipses. It therefore holds a strong potential for accurate mass measurements in a low-mass X-ray binary system. Aims. Determining the companion star's radial velocity would make it possible to fully resolve the system and to accurately measure the mass of the neutron star based on dynamical measurements. Unfortunately, no optical or near infrared (NIR) counterpart has been identified to date for this system, whether in outburst or in quiescence.Methods. We performed a photometric study of the field of Swift J1749.4-2807 during quiescence to search for a variable counterpart. The source direction lies on the Galactic plane, making any search for its optical/NIR counterpart challenging. To minimize the effects of field crowding and interstellar extinction, we carried out our observations using the adaptive optics NIR imager NACO mounted at the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT).Results. From the analysis of public Swift X-ray data obtained during outburst, we derived the most precise (1.6 radius) position for this source. Due to the extreme stellar crowding of the field, 41 sources are detected in our VLT images within the X-ray error circle, with some of them possibly showing variability consistent with the expectations. Conclusions. We carried out the first deep imaging campaign devoted to the search for the quiescent NIR counterpart of Swift J1749.4-2807. Our results allow us to provide constraints on the nature of the companion star of this system. Furthermore, they suggest that future phase-resolved NIR observations (performed with large-aperture telescopes and adaptive optics) covering the full orbital period of the system are likely to identify the quiescent counterpart of Swift J1749.4-2807, through measuring its orbital variability, opening the possibility of dynamical studies of this unique source.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A search for the near-infrared counterpart of the eclipsing millisecond X-ray pulsar Swift J1749.4–2807

D’Avanzo

Campana

Muñoz-Darias

et al. 2011

A&A

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“…RTS2 consists of three major layers -device, service and monitoring, with components communicating over TCP using a simple text protocol. Detailed design and development history of RTS2 can be found in Kubánek et al (2006). RTS2 development started with RTS on the BART telescope, located in Ondřejov Observatory, Czech Republic.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

RTS2: Lessons learned from a widely distributed telescope network

Kubánek

2008

Astron Nachr

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RTS2 (Remote Telescope System 2) is a highly modular open source telescope and observatory management software package. It evolved from RTS, which was developed in Python to control a telescope aimed at observing optical transients of γ ray burts. The development of a network system capable of operating robotic telescopes is both difficult and complicated. Along with continued software development one must be concerned with maintaining operations and obtaining results. This is a review of experiences gained building a network of robotic telescopes. It focuses on describing which issues are important during development of the robotic observatory software and requirements for future development of the RTS2 package.

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“…It is equipped with a CCD camera FLI IMG 4710 (CCD chip E2V 47-10, mid-band coating, 1024×1024 pixels), focuser FLI DF-2, and field corrector TeleVue Paracorr PSB-1100. It is controlled by RTS2 software (Kubánek et al 2006) and uses astrometric code by Lang et al (2010). The field of view is 20 × 20 arcmin.…”

Section: Observationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cycles in the cataclysmic variable V795 Herculis

Šimon

Polasek

Štrobl

et al. 2012

A&A

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Aims. We investigate the photometric activity of the cataclysmic variable (CV) V795 Her. We pay attention to the time evolution of the length of its superhump cycle P sh . We investigate how well the superhump profile is reproduced in the individual phases Φ sh of P sh . We also analyze the mutual relation of the intensity of the superhump light and the superimposed rapid intensity variations. Methods. We used the photometric V-band CCD observations obtained between 2008 and 2010. The observing run on a given night consisted of a dense series of V-band images (exp. time of 20 s), which enabled us to investigate the superhump profile and the superimposed rapid changes. Results. We identified several time segments characterized by a relatively stable P sh and mean intensity level. We find that inside such a segment, the smoothed profile of the intensity curve folded with P sh displays the largest scatter of the residuals of the mean profile in Φ sh of the peak intensity and during the decay from this peak. A zone of quiescence occurs at Φ sh ≈ 0.6−0.7. The profile of these residuals can be explained if the strength and luminosity of the spiral arms undergo large variations on a timescale much shorter than the segment's duration, as predicted in a previously developed model, while the conditions for the disk precession remain much more stable. The formation of these arms is considerably faster than their fading. We find that the emission of the superimposed short cycle (∼0.01-0.02 d) in this CV depends on Φ sh . We conclude that it does not come from pulsations of the white dwarf or, generally, from the close vicinity of this accretor. We argue that it is flickering with the site in the disk region that produces the superhump. This flickering is not located in the impact of the stream on the disk. V795 Her is a borderline case in the sense that its disk is close to the switch to the cool state. We explain the suppression of the thermal-viscous instability of the disk in V795 Her as caused by the tidal force that is also the reason for the superhumps. This tidal heating can also help to keep the accretion disks in other permanent superhumpers in the hot state.

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RTS2: a powerful robotic observatory manager

Cited by 24 publications

References 6 publications

A search for the near-infrared counterpart of the eclipsing millisecond X-ray pulsar Swift J1749.4–2807

A search for the near-infrared counterpart of the eclipsing millisecond X-ray pulsar Swift J1749.4–2807

RTS2: Lessons learned from a widely distributed telescope network

Cycles in the cataclysmic variable V795 Herculis

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