The bright star survey telescope for the planetary transit survey in Antarctica

• Published in: Science Bulletin
• Main Authors: Tian, Qiguo, Jiang, Peng, Du, Fujia, Wang, Jian, Li, Zhengyang, Li, Xiaoyan, Zhang, Zhiyong, Lu, Haiping, Yuan, Xiangyan, Liu, Huigen, Zhang, Hui, Sun, Luming, Chang L(常亮), Wang JG(王建国), Zhang, Shaohua, Ji, Tuo, Shi, Xiheng, Chen, Jie, Zhang, Guangyu, Jia, Minghao, Liu, Jiajing, Zhou, Junyan, Pan, Xiang, Dong, Shucheng, Jiang, Fengxin, Zhang, Hongfei, Zhou, Jilin, Wang, Lifan, Zhou, Hongyan
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: SCIENCE PRESS 2016
• Subjects: Instrumentation; Exoplanet; Photometry; Antarctic Site; 天文学; 天文学::天文学其他学科; 理学; 理学::天文学; Science & Technology - Other Topics; Multidisciplinary Sciences; DIGITAL SKY SURVEY; K-DWARF; DOME-C; MASS; SCINTILLATION; ATMOSPHERE; COMPANION; Surveys; 408.2Structural Members and Shapes - 641.1Thermodynamics - 657.2Extraterrestrial Physics and Stellar Phenomena - 714.2Semiconductor Devices and Integrated Circuits - 941.4Optical Variables Measurements; Science & Technology; Antarctic; Jupiter; Starlight; The Antarctic; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: http://ir.ynao.ac.cn/handle/114a53/9348; http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11434-016-1015-0; https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-016-1015-0

Transiting extrasolar planets (exoplanets), especially those orbiting bright stars, are desired for study of the diversity of planetary compositions, internal structures and atmospheres beyond our solar system. Dome A at Antarctica is a promising site for planetary transit surveys, where the continuous darkness and the large clear-sky fraction in the winter months greatly enhance the detection efficiency. The Chinese Small Telescope ARray and the Antarctic Survey Telescopes are the first facilities that have been operated at Dome A for use in exoplanet surveys. To increase the sky coverage, a low-temperature-resistant wide-field robotic telescope, named the bright star survey telescope (BSST), has been developed to join the ongoing planetary transit survey in Antarctica. The BSST has an aperture size of 300 mm and is equipped with a large-frame 4k x 4k CCD camera to receive starlight from a 3.degrees 4 x 3.degrees 4 field of view. The BSST was operated at Lijiang observatory in April and May 2015 for a test run. Photometric precision of 3.5 mmag was achieved for stars with V similar to 11 mag using 75 s exposures. The transiting events of two Jupiter-size exoplanets, HAT-P-3b and HAT-P-12b, were observed on May 10 and May 20, 2015, respectively.