30 October 2003

Speaker: Charles Alcock (Univ. of Pennsylvania)

Title: Fishing in the Dark: Searching for extremely faint objects in the outer Solar System

Abstract: The Taiwanese-American Occultation Survey (TAOS) is a program dedicated to performing a survey of small objects (less than 10 km) in the trans-Neptunian Region of the Solar System by detecting the occultations of bright stars by these objects. To carry this out, we have developed an automated observatory, based on an array of four small, (50 cm), telescopes, each equipped with a 2048x2048 pixel CCD camera. The telescopes will operate in tandem fashion, coupled to a real-time analysis pipeline designed to monitor 2000 stars simultaneously at 5 Hz. This system is partially installed at a site in the central highlands of Taiwan. An overview of the system components, software architecture, and some of the challenges encountered will be presented.

References for students:

1. Goldader and Alcock 2003, PASP 115:1330