The Weizmann Fast Astronomical Survey Telescope (W-FAST): System Overview
arXiv:2105.03436 · doi:10.1088/1538-3873/ac0da0
Abstract
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 2.6x2.6 deg (~7deg^2) equipped with a high frame rate, low read noise, CMOS camera. The system can observe at a frame rate of up to 90HZ (full frame), while nominally observations are conducted at 10-25Hz. The data, generated at a rate of over 6Gbits/s at a frame rate of 25Hz, are analyzed in real time. The observatory is fully robotic and capable of autonomously collecting data on a few thousand stars in each field each night. We present the system overview, performance metrics, science objectives, and some first results, e.g., the detection of a high rate of glints from geosynchronous satellites, reported in Nir et al. 2020.
arXiv comment13 pages, 18 figures. Submitted to PASP
References in corpus (49)
- Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Black Hole Merger
- Gaia Data Release 2. Summary of the contents and survey properties
- The 2.5 m Telescope of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
- X-ray Properties of Black-Hole Binaries
- The Zwicky Transient Facility: System Overview, Performance, and First Results
- A bright millisecond radio burst of extragalactic origin
- The Palomar Transient Factory: System Overview, Performance and First Results
- Correcting systematic effects in a large set of photometric lightcurves
- BlackCAT: A catalogue of stellar-mass black holes in X-ray transients
- Science with ASKAP - the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder
- The CHIME Fast Radio Burst Project: System Overview
- ULTRACAM: an ultra-fast, triple-beam CCD camera for high-speed astrophysics
- A Comparison of Intermediate Mass Black Hole Candidate ULXs and Stellar-Mass Black Holes
- An Activity-Rotation Relationship and Kinematic Analysis of Nearby Mid-to-Late-type M Dwarfs
- Shaping the Kuiper belt size spectrum by shattering large but strengthless bodies
- Initial Characterization of Interstellar Comet 2I/2019 Q4 (Borisov)
- Astrophysical Black Holes: A Compact Pedagogical Review
- Initial Planetesimal Sizes and the Size Distribution of Small Kuiper Belt Objects
- Quasi periodic oscillations in black hole binaries
- INTEGRAL/IBIS nine-year Galactic Hard X-Ray Survey
- A single sub-km Kuiper Belt object from a stellar Occultation in archival data
- The origin and fate of short-period low-mass black-hole binaries
- Detection of superhumps in XTE J1118+480 approaching quiescence
- Constraints on the space density of intermediate polars from the Swift-BAT survey
- CHIMERA: a wide-field, multi-color, high-speed photometer at the prime focus of the Hale telescope
- Measuring the Abundance of sub-kilometer sized Kuiper Belt Objects using Stellar Occultations
- Amateur telescopes discover a kilometre-sized Kuiper belt object from stellar occultation
- Inclination Effects and Beaming in Black Hole X-ray Binaries
- DONUTS: A science frame autoguiding algorithm with sub-pixel precision, capable of guiding on defocused stars
- catsHTM - A tool for fast accessing and cross-matching large astronomical catalogs
- The first low-mass black hole X-ray binary identified in quiescence outside of a globular cluster
- The TAOS Project: Results From Seven Years of Survey Data
- Optical precursors to X-ray binary outbursts
- GRB070610 : A Curious Galactic Transient
- IR Monitoring of the Microquasar GRS 1915+105: Detection of Orbital and Superhump Signatures
- Orbital Foregrounds for Ultra-Short Duration Transients
- Seeing-limited imaging sky surveys -- small vs. large telescopes
- A high-rate foreground of sub-second flares from geosynchronous satellites
- Mining for Candidates of Galactic Stellar-mass Black Hole Binaries with LAMOST
- Rotational properties of the Haumea family members and candidates: Short-term variability
- A code for robust astrometric solution of astronomical images
- Organized Autotelescopes for Serendipitous Event Survey (OASES): design and performance
- Searching for Black Hole Candidates by LAMOST and ASAS-SN
- Constraining the X-ray - Infrared spectral index of second-timescale flares from SGR1935+2154 with Palomar Gattini-IR
- The Intermediate Polar EI UMa: A Pre-Polar Cataclysmic Variable
- Pipeline for the Detection of Serendipitous Stellar Occultations by Kuiper Belt Objects with the Colibri Fast-Photometry Array
- Herschel Observations and Updated Spectral Energy Distributions of Five Sunlike Stars with Debris Disks
- VLBA discovery of a resolved source in the candidate black hole X-ray binary AT2019wey
- Spectral and Spin Measurement of Two Small and Fast-Rotating Near-Earth Asteroids