COATLI: an all-sky robotic optical imager with 0.3 arcsec image quality

TL;DR

COATLI is a robotic 50-cm telescope designed to deliver high-resolution 0.3 arcsec images across a large sky area in optical wavelengths, enabling detailed astronomical observations even under suboptimal seeing conditions.

Contribution

This paper introduces COATLI, a novel all-sky robotic imager capable of diffraction-limited imaging with a small telescope, combining fast guiding and wide coverage.

Findings

Achieves 0.3 arcsec image quality in optical wavelengths.

Provides large sky coverage with diffraction-limited imaging.

Operates effectively in poor seeing conditions.

Abstract

COATLI will provide 0.3 arcsec FWHM images from 550 to 900 nm over a large fraction of the sky. It consists of a robotic 50-cm telescope with a diffraction-limited fast-guiding imager. Since the telescope is small, fast guiding will provide diffraction-limited image quality over a field of at least 1 arcmin and with coverage of a large fraction of the sky, even in relatively poor seeing. The COATLI telescope will be installed at the at the Observatorio Astron\'omico Nacional in Sierra San Pedro M\'artir, M\'exico, during 2016 and the diffraction-limited imager will follow in 2017.