The first light of Mini-MegaTORTORA wide-field monitoring system

Here we describe the first light of the novel 9-channel wide-field optical monitoring system with sub-second temporal resolution, Mini-MegaTORTORA, which is being tested now at Special Astrophysical Observatory on Russian Caucasus. The system is able to observe the sky simultaneously in either wide (~900 square degrees) or narrow (~100 square degrees) fields of view, either in clear light or with any combination of color (Johnson B, V or R) polarimetric filters installed, with exposure times ranging from 100 ms to 100 s. The primary goal of the system is the detection of rapid -- with sub-second characteristic time-scales -- optical transients, but it may be also used for studying the variability of the sky objects on longer time scales.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figures, based on the talk presented on "Modern stellar astronomy-2014" (Rostov-on-Don

Photometric calibration of a wide-field sky survey data from Mini-MegaTORTORA

© 2018 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim Mini-MegaTORTORA is a nine-channel wide-field camera that continuously monitors the sky looking for rapid optical transients since mid-2014. It is also performing a regular sky survey, and has already acquired nearly half a million images covering every point of Northern Sky hundreds to thousands of times. Photometric analysis of these data may provide a huge amount of information useful for the detection and characterization of different types of variable objects. Here we present a brief description of our activities related to the acquisition, processing, and calibration of these data, as well as examples of uncataloged variable stars of various types detected during the analysis

Wide-field subsecond temporal resolution optical monitoring systems for the detection and study of cosmic hazards

The possibility of using multi-objective optical telescopes equipped with detectors with high time resolution is studied. Two types of instruments with six and nine channels are considered here, which include the standard high-aperture objectives with small diameters, panoramic detectors with high time resolution, and equatorial mounts. The instruments function in two regimes, the monitoring mode and the follow-up mode in which all objectives observe one field with a rapidly moving celestial object detected by monitoring. Using the FAVOR and TORTORA cameras moving satellites and meteors of 9-10 stellar magnitudes in brightness were registered. The positive experience acquired from the exploitation of the FAVOR and TORTORA systems led to awareness of the need to further develop the wide-field technique to search for fast optical transients. The main result of the realization of the project will be the construction of a new type of instrument to discover and study rapidly variable optical sources with a priori unknown location

Mini-megatortora status update

Here we give a status report on the next generation, multi-objective and transforming monitoring system, MiniMegaTORTORA, with two variants (MMT-6 based on image intensifiers with fast CCDs and MMT-9 equipped with Andor Neo sCMOSes) now under construction and commissioning at SAO RAS. This system combines a wide field of view with subsecond temporal resolution in monitoring regime, and is able to reconfigure itself, in a fractions of second, to follow-up mode which has better sensitifity and provides us with multi-color and polarimetric information on detected transients simultaneously. Hardware and software solutions used for the systems, as well as perspectives of its operation, are also discussed

Mini-MegaTORTORA-multichannel system for wide-field optical monitoring with high temporal resolution

We report on a multi-objective and transforming 9-channel monitoring system, the Mini-MegaTORTORA (MMT-9). This system combines a wide field of view with a subsecond temporal resolution in the monitoring regime, and is able to recofingure itself, in fractions of a second, to a follow up mode which has better sensitivity and provides us with multi-color and polarimetric information on detected transients simultaneously

Eight exoplanet candidates in SAO survey

Here we present eight new candidates for exoplanets detected by the transit method at the Special Astrophysical Observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Photometric observations were performed with a 50-cm robotic telescope during the second half of 2020. We detected transits with depths of $\Delta m = 0.056-0.173^m$ and periods $P = 18.8^h-8.3^d$ in the light curves of stars with magnitudes of $m = 14.3-18.8^m$. All considered stars are classified as dwarfs with radii of $R_* = 0.4-0.6 R_{sun}$ (with the uncertainty for one star up to $1.1 R_{sun}$). We estimated the candidate radii (all are greater than 1.4 times the Jovian radius), semi-major axes of their orbits ($0.012-0.035 AU$), and other orbital parameters by modelling. We report the light curves with transits for two stars obtained in 2022 based on individual observations.Comment: 16 pages, 14 figures, 3 table

Observations of transient events with Mini-MegaTORTORA wide-field monitoring system with sub-second temporal resolution

Here we present the summary of first years of operation and the first results of a novel 9-channel wide-field optical monitoring system with sub-second temporal resolution, Mini-MegaTORTORA (MMT-9), which is in operation now at Special Astrophysical Observatory on Russian Caucasus. The system is able to observe the sky simultaneously in either wide (900 square degrees) or narrow (100 square degrees) fields of view, either in clear light or with any combination of color (Johnson-Cousins B, V or R) and p olarimetric filters installed, with exposure times ranging from 0.1 s to hundreds of seconds. The real-time system data analysis pipeline performs automatic detection of rapid transient events, both near-Earth and extragalactic. The objects routinely detected by MMT also include faint meteors and artificial satellites

Wide-field optical monitoring with Mini-MegaTORTORA (MMT-9) multichannel high temporal resolution telescope

© 2017, Pleiades Publishing, Ltd.We describe the properties of Mini-MegaTORTORA (MMT-9) nine-channel wide-field optical sky monitoring system with subsecond temporal resolution. This instrument can observe sky areas as large as 900 deg2, perform photometry in three filters close to Johnson BV R system and polarimetry of selected objects or areas with 100–300 deg2 sizes. The limiting magnitude of the system is up to V = 11m for 0.1 s temporal resolution, and reaches V = 15m in minute-long exposures. The system is equipped with a powerful computing facility and dedicated software pipeline allowing it to perform automatic detection, real-time classification, and investigation of transient events of different nature located both in the near- Earth space and at extragalactic distances. The objects routinely detected by MMT-9 include faint meteors and artificial Earth satellites.We discuss astronomical tasks that can be solved using MMT-9, and present the results of the first two years of its operation. In particular, we report the parameters of the optical flare detected on June 25, 2016, which accompanied the gamma-ray burst GRB160625B