Optical system of the Three Antarctic Survey Telescopes

• Published in: Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Vol. 424; no. 1; pp. 23 - 30
• Main Authors: Yuan, Xiangyan, Su, Ding-qiang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.07.2012; Oxford University Press
• Subjects: Astronomy; atmospheric effects; Optics; stars: imaging; surveys; techniques: miscellaneous; Telescopes; Antarctica, East Antarctica, Dome A; techniques: miscellaneous; surveys; stars: imaging; atmospheric effects; telescopes
• ISSN: 0035-8711; 1365-2966
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2966.2012.20874.x

Dome A is the highest point on the Antarctic Plateau, and the Chinese Expedition Team first arrived here in 2005 January. It is an excellent site for astronomical observations. The first-generation Chinese Antarctic optical telescope CSTAR has been operating on Dome A since 2008 January. The second-generation Chinese telescopes known as the Three Antarctic Survey Telescopes (AST3) are currently being developed. AST3 includes three telescopes matched respectively with G-, R- and I-band filters. Each telescope is a catadioptric optical telescope with an entrance pupil diameter of 500 mm, an f-ratio of 3.73 and a field of view of 4°.14. The optical system of the AST3 consists of a transparent aspherical plate, an aspherical primary mirror and a spherical refractive corrector with a filter before the focal plane. The main features of the AST3 are the following: good image quality, a planar focal plane, reduced atmospheric dispersion, an absence of distortion and a compact structure. The main scientific goal of the AST3 is to survey the sky. In 2012 January, the first telescope of the AST3 was successfully installed on Dome A.