THE RCT 1.3 m ROBOTIC TELESCOPE: BROADBAND COLOR TRANSFORMATION AND EXTINCTION CALIBRATION

The Robotically Controlled Telescope (RCT) 1.3 m telescope, formerly known as the Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO) 50 inch telescope, has been refurbished as a fully robotic telescope, with an autonomous scheduler to take full advantage of the observing site without the requirement of a human p...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Astronomical journal 2014-03, Vol.147 (3), p.1-12
Main Authors: STROLGER, L-G, Gott, A M, Carini, M, Engle, S, Gelderman, R, Guinan, E, Laney, C D, McGruder, C, TREFFERS, R R, Walter, D K
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
ACCURACY
ASTROPHYSICS, COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
Autonomous
Broadband
CALIBRATION
COLOR
CONFIGURATION
CORRECTIONS
ERRORS
Extinction
MAINTENANCE
MATHEMATICAL SOLUTIONS
Photometry
Robotics
SCHEDULES
TELESCOPES
TRANSFORMATIONS
VERIFICATION
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Summary:The Robotically Controlled Telescope (RCT) 1.3 m telescope, formerly known as the Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO) 50 inch telescope, has been refurbished as a fully robotic telescope, with an autonomous scheduler to take full advantage of the observing site without the requirement of a human presence. Here we detail the current configuration of the RCT and present, as a demonstration of its high-priority science goals, the broadband UBVRI photometric calibration of the optical facility. In summary, we find the linear color transformation and extinction corrections to be consistent with similar optical KPNO facilities, to within a photometric precision of 10% (at 1er). While there were identified instrumental errors that likely added to the overall uncertainty, associated with since-resolved issues in engineering and maintenance of the robotic facility, a preliminary verification of this calibration gave a good indication that the solution is robust, perhaps to a higher precision than this initial calibration implies. The RCT has been executing regular science operations since 2009 and is largely meeting the science requirements set during its acquisition and redesign.
ISSN:0004-6256
1538-3881
1538-3881
DOI:10.1088/0004-6256/147/3/49