The ROTSE-III Robotic Telescope System
Abstract
The observation of a prompt optical flash from GRB990123 convincingly demonstrated the value of autonomous robotic telescope systems. Pursuing a program of rapid follow-up observations of gamma-ray bursts, the Robotic Optical Transient Search Experiment (ROTSE) has developed a next-generation instrument, ROTSE-III, that will continue the search for fast optical transients. The entire system was designed as an economical robotic facility to be installed at remote sites throughout the world. There are seven major system components: optics, optical tube assembly, CCD camera, telescope mount, enclosure, environmental sensing & protection and data acquisition. Each is described in turn in the hope that the techniques developed here will be useful in similar contexts elsewhere.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0210238,
title = {The ROTSE-III Robotic Telescope System},
author = {C. W. Akerlof and M. C. B. Ashley and D. E. Casperson and H. W. Epps and R. L. Kehoe and S. L. Marshall and K. E. McGowan and T. A. McKay and M. A. Phillips and E. S. Rykoff and J. A. Schier and D. A. Smith and W. T. Vestrand and P. R. Wozniak and J. A. Wren},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0210238},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
19 pages, including 4 figures. To be published in PASP in January, 2003. PASP Number IP02-110