On-Sky and Laboratory Characterizations of Next-Generation Evryscope Prototype (2016)
Undergraduate: Sheridan Green
Faculty Advisor: Nicholas Law
Department: Physics & Astronomy
The Evryscope is a currently operating telescope array that continually observes ~8000 square degrees of the night sky, monitoring for transient events, exoplanet transits, and other observables down to magnitudes as faint as V~17. Recent development in the embedded imaging industry could make possible the construction of a new multi-gigapixel array using low-cost sensors. As the successor to the Evryscope, this array could have a similar field of view, while increasing the angular resolution by a factor of 4. This system could utilize ~1000-2000 sensors, each containing 10 MPix, yielding a total image up to 20 gigapixels. An image sensor from ON Semiconductor has been selected and is being characterized. The collection of calibration images and calculation of minimum light detection threshold is done initially in a controlled-light laboratory environment. Subsequently, basic observations will be attempted in on-sky tests, namely the detection of known exoplanet transits around bright stars. This requires the construction of a precise sky-tracking mount for the optical system. The faintest magnitudes available will be determined by combining multiple exposures into hour-long integrations. The fully-constructed telescope array will serve various observational purposes, including the detection of nearby transiting planets, monitoring stellar activity, and collecting high-cadence light curves of bright transients and variable objects.