Observational techniquesmeeting #5

Future surveys

Narrow (pencil beam):

HDFUDFGOODsCosmosMCTJWST

Future surveys

Deep/wide:

CFHTLS (Megacam)Subaru Suprimecam

Hypersuprimecam

DES

Future surveys

All/most sky/time domain:

PTF

PS1/skymapper

LSST

The Palomar Transient Factory

There is nothing like searching, if you want to find something.You usually find something, if you search,but it is not always quite the something you were after.

Thorin Oakenshild

Palomar Transient Factory (PTF)• A 100 Mega-pixel, 7 deg2 camera

(CFH12K) on the 48 inch Schmidt Telescope at Palomar that:

-- scans 10% of the sky every few days . . . -- finds ~1000 transients per year that are tracked by small telescopes for photometry and larger (3-10m) for spectroscopy -- is creating a deep sky image and lightcurves in 2 bands (g’ and R) that will yield galactic science -- H-alpha surveys in four bands starting May 2011.

# 7

P60:Followup

P60:FollowupP48:

Discovery Engine7.26 sq. deg. camera

P48:Discovery Engine

7.26 sq. deg. camera

The Palomar Transient Factory

Instrumentation, system design, first results Law, Kulkarni, Dekany et al. 2009 PASP 121 1395L

Science plans Rau, Kulkarni, Law et al. 2009 PASP 121 1334R

2010 survey status Law et al. 2010 SPIE 7735

P200:Followup

P200:Followup

The PTF camera field of view92 MPix

1.0 arcsec samplingR=21 in 60 seconds

FWHM and Limiting Magnitude

In 2010: 81% of nights usable 36,933 science images >7 TB

PTF Publications (so far)Real-Time Detection of a Highly Subluminous Type II-P Supernova with PTF

2011 ApJL submittedThe Extreme Hosts of Extreme Supernovae

2010 ApJ acceptedEvidence for an FU Orionis Outburst from a Classical T Tauri Star

2010 submitted to ApJPTF10nvg: An Outbursting Class I Protostar in the Pelican/North American Nebula

2010, submitted to ApJHubble Space Telescope Studies of Nearby Type Ia Supernovae

2010 submitted to ApJLGalaxy Zoo Supernovae

2010 accepted by MNRASRapidly Decaying Supernova 2010X: A Candidate ".Ia" Explosion

2010 ApJL, 723, 98-102Supernova PTF 09uj: A Possible Shock Breakout from a Dense Circumstellar Wind

2010 ApJ, 724, 1396-1401The Palomar Transient Factory Survey Camera: 1st Year Performance and Results

2010 SPIE 7735PTF10fqs: A Luminous Red Nova in the Spiral Galaxy Messier 99

2010 submitted to ApJCore-Collapse Supernovae from PTF: Indications for a Different Population in Dwarf Galaxies

ApJ 2010 721 777-784Mysterious transients unmasked as the bright blue death throes of massive stars

2010 submitted to NatureThe Palomar Transient Factory: System Overview, Performance and First Results

2009 PASP 121 1395LExploring the Optical Transient Sky with the Palomar Transient Factory

2009 PASP 121 1334RThe 12Kx8K CCD mosaic camera for the Palomar Transient Factory

2008 SPIE 7014

Detectors

Eye

QE: 1-4%Short integration time (<1s)

Photographic plates

QE: 1-2%Long integration times

Photomultipliers

QE ~ 50%Long integration timesFast modes

Photomultipliers: applications

Optical pulsars

“Great errors”(video)

CMOS (active pixel arrays)

Arrays of pixels, each composed on a photodetector (photodiode), amplifier, and readout electronics, realized on chip using CMOS technology

Material Sensitivity range (nm)

Silicon 190 - 1100

InGaAs 800 - 2600

PbS 1000 - 3500

High QE (>90%), fast readout, cheap, relatively high noise

End