pt5m – a 0.5 m robotic telescope on La Palma

Hardy, L.H.; Butterley, T.; Dhillon, V.S.; Littlefair, S.P.; Wilson, R.W.

doi:10.1093/mnras/stv2279

pt5m – a 0.5 m robotic telescope on La Palma

Hardy, L.H.; Butterley, T.; Dhillon, V.S.; Littlefair, S.P.; Wilson, R.W.

Authors

L.H. Hardy

T. Butterley

V.S. Dhillon

S.P. Littlefair

Dr Richard Wilson r.w.wilson@durham.ac.uk
Associate Professor

Abstract

pt5m is a 0.5 m robotic telescope located on the roof of the 4.2 m William Herschel Telescope (WHT) building, at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory, La Palma. Using a five-position filter wheel and CCD detector, and bespoke control software, pt5m provides a high-quality robotic observing facility. The telescope first began robotic observing in 2012, and is now contributing to transient follow-up and time-resolved astronomical studies. In this paper, we present the scientific motivation behind pt5m, as well as the specifications and unique features of the facility. We also present an example of the science we have performed with pt5m, where we measure the radius of the transiting exoplanet WASP-33b. We find a planetary radius of 1.603 ± 0.014RJ.

Citation

Hardy, L., Butterley, T., Dhillon, V., Littlefair, S., & Wilson, R. (2015). pt5m – a 0.5 m robotic telescope on La Palma. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 454(4), 4316-4325. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stv2279

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	Sep 29, 2015
Online Publication Date	Oct 28, 2015
Publication Date	Dec 21, 2015
Deposit Date	Mar 29, 2016
Publicly Available Date	Apr 7, 2016
Journal	Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Print ISSN	0035-8711
Electronic ISSN	1365-2966
Publisher	Royal Astronomical Society
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	454
Issue	4
Pages	4316-4325
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stv2279

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This article has been published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society ©: 2015 The Authors Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.