Gattini: a multisite campaign for the measurement of sky brightness in Antarctica

• Published in: SPIE Proceedings, Ground-based and Airborne Telescopes II
• Main Authors: Moore, Anna, Allen, Graham, Aristidi, Eric, Ashley, Michael, Bedding, Tim, Beichman, Chas, Briguglio, Runa, Busso, Maurizio, Candidi, Maurizio, Ciardi, David, Cui, Xiangqun, Cutispoto, Giuseppe, Distefano, Elisa, Espy, Patrick, Everett, Jon, Feng, Longlong, Hu, Jingyao, Jiang, Zhaoji, Kenyon, Suzanne, Kulesa, Craig, Lawrence, Jon, Le Roux, Brice, Leslie, Tim, Li, Yuangshen, Luong-Van, Daniel, Phillips, Andre, Qin, Weijian, Ragazzoni, Roberto, Riddle, Reed, Sabbatini, Lucia, Salinari, Piero, Saunders, Will, Shang, Zhaohui, Stello, Dennis, Storey, John, Sun, Bo, Suntzeff, Nicolas, Taylor, Melinda, Tosti, Gino, Tothill, Nick, Travouillon, Tony, van Belle, Gerard, von Braun, Kaspar, Wang, Lifan, Yan, Jun, Yang, Huigen, Yuan, Xiangyan, Zhu, Zhenxi, Zhou, Xu
• Other Authors: University of New South Wales Sydney (UNSW), Joseph Louis LAGRANGE (LAGRANGE), Université Nice Sophia Antipolis (1965 - 2019) (UNS)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur, Université Côte d'Azur (UCA)-Université Côte d'Azur (UCA)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), INAF - Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri (OAA), Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF), Dipartimento di Fisica e Geologia Perugia, Università degli Studi di Perugia = University of Perugia (UNIPG), Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC), California Institute of Technology (CALTECH), Laboratoire Universitaire d'Astrophysique de Nice (LUAN), Université Nice Sophia Antipolis (1965 - 2019) (UNS)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova (OAPD), Stellar Astrophysics Centre Aarhus (SAC), Aarhus University Aarhus, TMT project, Department of Physics and Astronomy College Station, Texas A&M University College Station, Massachusetts General Hospital Boston, Computational Biology Department Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh (CMU), National University of Defense Technology China
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2008
• Subjects: [PHYS.ASTR]Physics [physics]/Astrophysics [astro-ph]; Antarctic; Concordia Station; Plato; The Antarctic; Antarc*; Antarctica; International Polar Year; Polar Research Institute of China
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-02481861; https://doi.org/10.1117/12.789783

International audience We present the Gattini project: a multisite campaign to measure the optical sky properties above the two high altitude Antarctic astronomical sites of Dome C and Dome A. The Gattini-DomeC project, part of the IRAIT site testing campaign and ongoing since January 2006, consists of two cameras for the measurement of optical sky brightness, large area cloud cover and auroral detection above the DomeC site, home of the French-Italian Concordia station. The cameras are transit in nature and are virtually identical except for the nature of the lenses. The cameras have operated successfully throughout the past two Antarctic winter seasons and here we present the first results obtained from the returned 2006 dataset. The Gattini-DomeA project will place a similar site testing facility at the highest point on the Antarctic plateau, Dome A, with observations commencing in 2008. The project forms a small part of a much larger venture coordinated by the Polar Research Institute of China as part of the International Polar Year whereby an automated site testing facility called PLATO will be traversed into the DomeA site. The status of this exciting and ambitious project with regards to the Gattini-DomeA cameras will be presented.