Status of the Transneptunian Automated Occultation Survey (TAOS II)
Abstract
The Transneptunian Automated Occultation Survey (TAOS II) will aim to detect occultations of stars by small (∼1 km diameter) objects in the Transneptunian region and beyond. Such events are very rare (<10^{-3} events per star per year) and short in duration (∼200 ms), so many stars must be monitored at a high readout cadence. TAOS II will operate three 1.3 meter telescopes at the Observatorio Astronómico Nacional at San Pedro Mártir in Baja California, México. With a 2.3 square degree field of view and high-speed cameras comprising arrays of custom CMOS imagers, the survey will monitor 10,000 stars simultaneously with all three telescopes at a readout cadence of 20 Hz. The survey will begin operation in 2016. This poster presents an update on the status of the site preparation and the technical development.
- Publication:
-
Asteroids, Comets, Meteors 2014
- Pub Date:
- July 2014
- Bibcode:
- 2014acm..conf..308L