First autonomous telescope at Wallace Observatory : impact and preliminary results

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.