Related papers: Building the Evryscope: Hardware Design and Perfor…
The 2MASS photometric calibration observations cover ~6 square degrees on the sky in 35 "calibration fields" each sampled in nominal photometric conditions between 562 and 3692 times during the four years of the 2MASS mission. We compile a…
A relatively unexplored phase space of transients and stellar variability is that of second and sub-second time-scales. We describe a new optical observatory operating in the Negev desert in Israel, with a 55 cm aperture, a field of view of…
Euclid is an ESA mission designed to constrain the properties of dark energy and gravity via weak gravitational lensing and galaxy clustering. It will carry out a wide area imaging and spectroscopy survey (EWS) in visible and near-infrared,…
(Abridged) This thesis presents work towards the design of a new array of Image Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes (IACTs) to detect multi-TeV gamma-ray sources. The array consists of 5 telescopes in a square layout with one central…
Mini-EUSO is a compact telescope ($37 \times 37 \times 62$~cm$^3$) currently hosted on board the International Space Station. Mini-EUSO is devoted primarily to study Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECR) above $10^{21}$~eV but also to…
Y dwarfs provide a unique opportunity to study free-floating objects with masses $<$30 M$_{Jup}$ and atmospheric temperatures approaching those of known Jupiter-like exoplanets. Obtaining distances to these objects is an essential step…
A modified version of the folded aplanatic Gregory telescope equipped with a spherical two-lens corrector is proposed for observations requiring a high signal-to-noise ratio. The basic telescope model has an aperture of 400 mm (f/3.0), its…
Microlensing has a unique advantage for detecting dark objects in the Milky Way, such as free-floating planets, neutron stars, and stellar-mass black holes. Most microlensing surveys focus on the Galactic bulge, where higher stellar density…
Transits of bright stars offer a unique opportunity to study detailed properties of extrasolar planets that cannot be determined through radial-velocity observations. We propose a new technique to find such systems using all-sky…
The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) will observe $\sim$150~million stars brighter than $T_{\rm mag} \approx 16$, with photometric precision from 60~ppm to 3~percent, enabling an array of exoplanet and stellar astrophysics…
We present the observational results of our search for emission-line galaxies (ELG) towards nearby voids. In order to find ELG, we started a survey using the IIIa-J objective prism plates from the Hamburg QSO Survey. The plates are…
Camera lenses are increasingly used in wide-field astronomical surveys due to their high performance, wide field-of-view (FOV) unreachable from traditional telescope optics, and modest cost. The machining and assembly tolerances for…
This paper is to introduce an online tool for the prediction of exoplanet transit light curves. Small telescopes can readily capture exoplanet transits under good weather conditions when the combination of a bright star and a large…
During its two year prime mission the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) will perform a time-series photometric survey covering over 80% of the sky. This survey comprises observations of 26 24 x 96 degree sectors that are each…
We present the technical design, construction and testing of the Colibri telescope array at Elginfield Observatory near London, Ontario, Canada. Three 50-cm telescopes are arranged in a triangular array and are separated by 110-160 metres.…
The ground-based gamma-ray observatory VERITAS (Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System) is sensitive to photons of astrophysical origin with energies in the range between $\approx 85$ GeV to $\approx 30$ TeV. The instrument…
Recent massive sky surveys in different bandwidths are providing new opportunities to modern astronomy. The Virtual Observatory (VO) represents the adequate framework to handle the huge amount of information available and filter out data…
Measurements of air showers made using the hybrid technique developed with the fluorescence and surface detectors of the Pierre Auger Observatory allow a sensitive search for point sources of EeV photons anywhere in the exposed sky. A…
Euclid is a proposed high-precision survey mission to map the geometry of the Dark Universe with demonstrated feasibility. Euclid's Visible - Near-InfraRed imaging and spectroscopy of the extragalactic sky will further produce extensive…
Mini-EUSO will observe the Earth in the UV range (300 - 400 nm) offering the opportunity to study a variety of atmospheric events such as Transient Luminous Events (TLEs), meteors and marine bioluminescence. Furthermore it aims to search…