First autonomous telescope at Wallace Observatory : impact and preliminary results
Name
1027722746-MIT.pdf
Description
Full printable version
Size
6.38 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
6ac924bb0d2eeb2bf5b2dd3e0071d01b
Author(s)
Kosiarek, Molly (Molly R.)
Advisor(s)
Richard Binzel and Michael Person.
Date Issued
2015
Publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Abstract
The construction and characterization of an autonomous telescope began in Fall 2014 at the MIT George R. Wallace, Jr. Astrophysical Observatory. An 11-inch Cassegrain Telescope was assembled in a 10-foot Technical Innovations ProDome. This telescope, the Small AUtonomous Robotic Optical Nightwatcher (SAURON), has the potential to autonomously collect photometric images. Data were taken on T-And0-15785, an eclipsing binary star, in order to test and characterize the system. The out-of-ecliptic R magnitude of T-AndO-15785 was found to be 13.487 ± 0.016. The magnitude changes for the primary and secondary eclipses were found to be 0.72 ± 0.036 and 0.62 ± 0.031 R magnitudes respectively. The telescope, SAURON, is currently able to locate targets and collect data robotically with an observer monitoring from afar.
Description
Thesis: S.B., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, 2015.
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 75-76).
Subjects
Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
Terms of Use
MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission.
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