Chinese Small Telescope ARray (CSTAR) for Antarctic Dome A

Abstract

Chinese first arrived in Antarctic Dome A in Jan. 2005 where is widely predicted to be a better astronomical site than Dome C where have a median seeing of 0.27arcsec above 30m from the ground. This paper introduces the first Chinese Antarctic telescope for Dome A (CSTAR) which is composed of four identical telescopes, with entrance pupil 145 mm, 20 square degree FOV and four different filters g, r, i and open band. CSTAR is mainly used for variable stars detection, measurement of atmosphere extinction, sky background and cloud coverage. Now CSTAR has been successfully deployed on Antarctic Dome A by the 24th Chinese expedition team in Jan. 2008. It has started automatic observation since March 20, 2008 and will continuously observe the south area for the whole winter time. The limited magnitude observed is about 16.5^m with 20 seconds exposure time. CSTARS's success is a treasurable experience and we can benefit a lot for our big telescope plans, including our three ongoing 500mm Antarctic Schmidt telescopes (AST3).