The PLATO observatory : robotic astronomy from the Antarctic plateau

PLATO is a 6 tonne completely self-contained robotic observatory that provides its own heat, electricity, and satellite communications. It was deployed to Dome A in Antarctica in January 2008 by the Chinese expedition team, and is now in its second year of operation. PLATO is operating four 14.5cm o...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union
Main Authors: Ashley, Michael C. B., Allen, Graham R., Bonner, Colin S., Bradley, Stuart G., Cui, Xiangqun, Everett, Jon R., Feng, Longlong, Gong, Xuefei, Hengst, Shane, Hu, Jinwen, Jiang, Zhaoji, Kulesa, Craig A., Lawrence, Jon S., Li, Yuanshen, Luong-Van, Daniel M., McCaughrean, Mark J., Moore, Anna M., Pennypacker, Carl R., Qin, Weijian, Riddle, Reed, Shang, Zhaohui, Storey, John W., Sun, Bo, Suntzeff, Nicholas B., Tothill, Nicholas F. H. (R17058), Travouillon, Tony, Walker, Christopher K., Wang, Lifan, Yan, Jun, Yang, Huigen, York, Don G., Yuan, Xiangyan, Zhang, Xuguo, Zhang, Zhanhai, Zhou, Xu, Zhu, Zhenxi
Other Authors: Corbett, Ian F. (Editor), International Astronomical Union. General Assembly (Event place)
Format: Conference Object
Language:English
Published: U.K., Cambridge University Press 2010
Subjects:
020102 - Astronomical and Space Instrumentation
970102 - Expanding Knowledge in the Physical Sciences
Antarctic
Plato
The Antarctic
Antarc*
Antarctica
Online Access:http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/548474
https://doi.org/10.1017/S1743921310010811
http://www.iau.org/science/meetings/past/general_assemblies/
Description
Summary:PLATO is a 6 tonne completely self-contained robotic observatory that provides its own heat, electricity, and satellite communications. It was deployed to Dome A in Antarctica in January 2008 by the Chinese expedition team, and is now in its second year of operation. PLATO is operating four 14.5cm optical telescopes with 1k×1k CCDs, a wide-field sky camera with a 2k×2k CCD and Sloan g, r, i filters, a fibre-fed spectrograph to measure the UV to near-IR sky spectrum, a 0.2m terahertz telescope, two sonic radars giving 1m resolution data on the boundary layer to a height of 180m, a 15m tower, meteorological sensors, and 8 web cameras. Beginning in 2010/11 PLATO will be upgraded to support a Multi Aperture Scintillation Sensor and three AST3 0.5m schmidt telescopes, with 10k×10k CCDs and 100TB/annum data requirements.

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