Autonomous observatories for the Antarctic plateau

• Main Authors: J. S. Lawrence, M. C. B. Ashley, J. W. V. Storey
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: site testing; autonomous observatory; Antarctic; The Antarctic; South Pole; Dome F; Plato; Antarc*; South pole
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.434.4748; http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/jacara/Papers/pdf/iaus288/lawrence_12_iaus288_ed.pdf

Abstract. Antarctic astronomical site-testing has been conducted using autonomous self-powered observatories for more than a decade (the AASTO at South Pole, the AASTINO at Dome C, and PLATO at Dome A/Dome F). More recently autonomous (PLATO) observatories have been developed and deployed to support small-scale scientific instruments, such as HEAT, a 0.6 m aperture terahertz telescope at Ridge A, and AST3, a 0.5 m optical telescope array at Dome A. This paper reviews the evolution of autonomous Antarctic astronomical observatories, and discusses the requirements and implications for observatories that will be needed for future larger-scale facilities.