The Evryscope: the first all-sky gigapixel-scale telescope
Abstract
Current time-domain wide-field sky surveys generally operate with few-degree-sized fields and take many individual images to cover large sky areas each night. We present the design and first results from the Evryscope ("wideseer"), which takes a different approach: using an array of 71mm telescopes to form a single, wide, field-of-view pointed at every part of the accessible sky simultaneously and continuously.The Evryscope is a gigapixel-scale imager which takes a 13"-pixel-sampling image covering 8,000 square degrees every two minutes. Its extremely large field of view overcomes the individual telescopes' modest apertures to produce an etendue ~10% of LSST's. The Evryscope, based at CTIO and with first light in May 2015, returns high-precision high-cadence light curves for every accessible star brighter than ~16th magnitude, and is searching for transiting giant planets around the brightest and most nearby stars, habitable planets around nearby M-dwarfs, and planetary occultations of white dwarfs. Its comprehensive nearby microlensing and eclipse-timing searches are sensitive to exoplanets inaccessible to other planet-finding methods, while the Evryscope will also provide comprehensive monitoring of outbursting young stars, white dwarf activity, and stellar activity of all types. When relatively rare transients events occur, such as gamma-ray bursts or nearby supernovae, the array will return minute-by-minute light curves without needing pointing towards the event as it occurs, and, because all data is recorded, can even search for pre-detection outbursts. We will present the system design, the results from the first few months of Evryscope operation, plans for more systems around the world, and an update on the Evryscope prototype telescopes we have been operating for the last three years in the Canadian High Arctic.
- Publication:
-
IAU General Assembly
- Pub Date:
- August 2015
- Bibcode:
- 2015IAUGA..2258092L