CaltechAUTHORS
Published September 2022 | Version Published + Accepted Version
Journal Article Open

India's First Robotic Eye for Time-domain Astrophysics: The GROWTH-India Telescope

Creators

  • 1. ROR icon Indian Institute of Technology Bombay
  • 2. ROR icon Indian Institute of Astrophysics
  • 3. ROR icon Texas Tech University
  • 4. ROR icon California Institute of Technology
  • 5. ROR icon Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • 6. ROR icon Pondicherry University
  • 7. ROR icon University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
  • 8. ROR icon Fergusson College
  • 9. ROR icon Heidelberg University
  • 10. ROR icon University of Mississippi
  • 11. ROR icon Tata Institute of Fundamental Research
  • 12. ROR icon National Central University
  • 13. ROR icon Hiroshima University
  • 14. ROR icon Queen's University Belfast
  • 15. ROR icon University of Cologne

Abstract

We present the design and performance of the GROWTH-India telescope, a 0.7 m robotic telescope dedicated to time-domain astronomy. The telescope is equipped with a 4k back-illuminated camera that gives a 0.°82 field of view and a sensitivity of m_(g′) ∼ 20.5 in 5 minute exposures. Custom software handles observatory operations: attaining high on-sky observing efficiencies (≳80%) and allowing rapid response to targets of opportunity. The data processing pipelines are capable of performing point-spread function photometry as well as image subtraction for transient searches. We also present an overview of the GROWTH-India telescope's contributions to the studies of gamma-ray bursts, the electromagnetic counterparts to gravitational wave sources, supernovae, novae, and solar system objects.

Additional Information

© 2022. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society. Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI. Received 2022 May 13; revised 2022 June 22; accepted 2022 June 22; published 2022 August 10. arsh Kumar thanks the LSSTC Data Science Fellowship Program, which is funded by LSSTC, NSF Cybertraining Grant #1829740, the Brinson Foundation, and the Moore Foundation; his participation in the program has benefited this work. This research has made use of the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED), which is funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and operated by the California Institute of Technology. This research has made use of NASA's Astrophysics Data System. This research has made use of data and/or services provided by the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center. This research has made use of the VizieR catalog access tool, CDS, Strasbourg, France (DOI:10.26093/cds/vizier). The original description of the VizieR service was published in 2000, A&AS 143, 23. This research made use of Astropy, 30 a community-developed core Python package for Astronomy (Astropy Collaboration et al. 2013, 2018). Software: Astropy (Astropy Collaboration et al. 2013, 2018), Numpy (van der Walt et al. 2011), Matplotlib (Hunter 2007), Astro-SCRAPPY (McCully & Tewes 2019), Flask (Grinberg 2018), SExtractor (Bertin & Arnouts 1996), PSFEx (Bertin 2011), SWarp (Bertin et al. 2002), pyzogy (Guevel & Hosseinzadeh 2017), astrometry.net (Lang et al. 2010).

Attached Files

Published - Kumar_2022_AJ_164_90.pdf

Accepted Version - 2206.13535.pdf

Files

2206.13535.pdf

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Additional details

Identifiers

Eprint ID
116222
Resolver ID
CaltechAUTHORS:20220810-402579000

Related works

Describes
https://arxiv.org/abs/2206.13535 (URL)

Funding

Indo-US Science and Technology Forum
IUSSTF/PIRE Program/GROWTH/2015-16
Large Synoptic Survey Telescope Corporation
NSF
OAC-1829740
Brinson Foundation
Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
NASA/JPL/Caltech

Dates

Created
2022-08-12
Created from EPrint's datestamp field
Updated
2022-08-12
Created from EPrint's last_modified field