Observing exoplanets from Antarctica in two colours: Set-up and operation of ASTEP+ ...

• Main Authors: Schmider, François-Xavier, Abe, Lyu, Agabi, Abdelkrim, Bendjoya, Philippe, Crouzet, Nicolas, Dransfield, Georgina, Guillot, Tristan, Lai, Olivier, Mekarnia, Djamel, Suarez, Olga, Triaud, Amaury H. M. J., Stee, Philippe, Günther, Maximilian N., Breeveld, Dennis, Blommaert, Sander
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: arXiv 2023
• Subjects: Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics astro-ph.IM; Earth and Planetary Astrophysics astro-ph.EP; FOS Physical sciences; Concordia Station; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2305.08454; https://arxiv.org/abs/2305.08454

On December 2021, a new camera box for two-colour simultaneous visible photometry was successfully installed on the ASTEP telescope at the Concordia station in Antarctica. The new focal box offers increased capabilities for the ASTEP+ project. The opto-mechanical design of the camera was described in a previous paper. Here, we focus on the laboratory tests of each of the two cameras, the low-temperature behaviour of the focal box in a thermal chamber, the on-site installation and alignment of the new focal box on the telescope, the measurement of the turbulence in the tube and the operation of the telescope equipped with the new focal box. We also describe the data acquisition and the telescope guiding procedure and provide a first assessment of the performances reached during the first part of the 2022 observation campaign. Observations of the WASP19 field, already observed previously with ASTEP, demonstrates an improvement of the SNR by a factor 1.7, coherent with an increased number of photon by a factor ... : 12 pages, 12 figures. Proceedings of Ground-based and Airborne Telescopes IX SPIE conference 2022 ...