The PLATO observatory : robotic astronomy from the Antarctic plateau

• 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/

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.