Mirror seeing of the Antarctic survey telescope

• Main Authors: Kaiyuan, Zhang, Zhengyang, Li, Xiangyan, Yuan, Chong, Pei
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Polar Research Institute of China - PRIC 2014
• Subjects: Atmosphere; Space; Advances in Polar Science; Antarc*; Antarctic; Antarctica; Polar Science
• Online Access: http://library.arcticportal.org/2530/; http://library.arcticportal.org/2530/1/A20140301.pdf

Site testing results indicate that Antarctic Dome A is an excellent ground-based astronomical site suitable for observations ranging from visible to infrared wavelengths. However, the harsh environment in Antarctica, especially the very low temperature and atmospheric pressure, always produces frost on the telescopes’ mirrors, which are exposed to the air. Since the Dome A site is still unattended, the Antarctic telescope tubes are always designed to be filled with dry nitrogen, and the outer surfaces of the optical system are heated by an indium-tin oxide thin film. These precautions can prevent the optical surfaces from frosting over, but they degrade the image quality by introducing additional mirror seeing. Based on testing observations of the second Antarctic Survey Telescope (AST3-2) in the Mohe site in China, mirror seeing resulting from the heated aspheric plate has been measured using micro-thermal sensors. Results comparing the real-time atmospheric seeing monitored by the Differential Image Motion Monitor and real-time examinations of image quality agree well.