南极巡天望远镜AST3
商朝晖++刘强
摘 要：南極冰穹A是南极内陆海拔最高、温度最低和最干燥的地方，因此，国际上普通预测冰穹A是地球上最佳的天文台址之一。中国天文学家于2008年首次到达冰穹A，并从此开始在冰穹A安装天文台址监测设备，截止目前得到的结果均表明，冰穹A是一个极佳的天文台址。南极巡天望远镜（AST3）是冰穹A的第二代光学天文望远镜，由3台50 cm口径的施密特望远镜组成，配备了目前世界上单片最大的CCD相机（10 K×10 K），望远镜视场是4.3平方度。AST3将在南极冰穹A开展大视场多波段巡天，它主要的科学目标是时域天文学。除了望远镜和CCD相机，成功的巡天还需要好的巡天规划、控制系统和数据处理系统。由于南极极端的自然条件，AST3需要在无人干预的情况下远程遥控工作，因此，我们需要研制一套稳定可靠的运行和控制系统来运行望远镜。受限于铱星的带宽，我们不可能把整幅图像传回（120 M），这就需要我们在当地快速处理数据，并传回星表。基于以上原因，我们优化了巡天运行和控制系统，完成了巡天规划和高精度测光。除了AST3，我们的研究成果也可以应用到其他光学望远镜和巡天项目，尤其是十二五南极天文台的光学/红外望远镜（KDUST）上。
关键词：运行 控制 数据库 南极巡天望远镜
Accurate Photometry of Massive Data for Antarctic Survey Telescopes （AST3）
Shang Chaohui1 Liu Qiang2
（1.Tianjin Normal University； 2.National Astronomical Observatories， Chinese Academy of Sciences）
Abstract：Dome A， Antarctica is predicted one of the best astronomical site， because it is the highest， coldest and driest in the Antarctic continent. Chinese astronomers reached Dome A in 2008 and installed several site-testing instruments since that year， the results all indicate Dome A is the best site for astronomical observation. Antarctic Survey Telescopes （AST3） is the second generation optical telescopes at Dome A， which consist of three Schmidt telescopes with aperture 50 cm， each telescope is equipped STA 10 K×10 K CCD camera with field of view 4.3 square degrees. They will be used for large area， multi-color sky survey at Dome A， Antarctica. The main research will focus on time-domain astronomy. Besides the telescopes and CCD cameras， a successful survey also needs a good survey scheduling and control system， and massive data reduction system. Due to the harsh natural condition of the Dome A site， the telescope can thus work in a remote area without human intervention for a long period of time， so， we must have a robust operation and control system to operate the telescope. Limited to Iridium satellite bandwidth， we can′t transfer whole image back （120 M）， which asks us to reduce the data at local and transfer the catalog back. Based on the current AST3 system， we optimized the survey operation and control system， completed the survey scheduling and achieved high precision photometry. Our study will also benefit other optical telescopes and survey programs， especially the optical/IR telescope （KDUST） of the 12.5 project for the Antarctic Dome A.
Key Words：Operation；Control；Database；AST3
