A Pointing Solution for the Medium Size Telescopes for the Cherenkov Telescope Array

TL;DR

This paper presents a pointing calibration method for medium size telescopes in the Cherenkov Telescope Array using an optical CCD-camera to accurately align telescopes and convert sky positions to camera points.

Contribution

It introduces an adapted approach for telescope pointing calibration employing an optical CCD-camera for simultaneous star and Cherenkov camera positioning.

Findings

Successful implementation of the CCD-camera calibration method.

Improved pointing accuracy of the medium size telescopes.

Enhanced alignment precision for Cherenkov Telescope Array observations.

Abstract

An important aspect of the calibration of the Cherenkov Telescope Array is the pointing, which enables an exact alignment of each telescope and therefore allows to transform a position in the sky to a point in the plane of the Cherenkov camera and vice versa. The favoured approach for the pointing calibration of the medium size telescopes (MST) is the installation of an optical CCD-camera in the dish of the telescope that captures the position of the Cherenkov camera and of the stars in the night sky simultaneously during data taking. The adaption of this approach is presented in this proceeding.