MuSCAT2: four-color Simultaneous Camera for the 1.52-m Telescopio Carlos S\'anchez

TL;DR

MuSCAT2 is a four-color simultaneous camera for the 1.52-m Telescopio Carlos Se1nchez, enabling high-precision exoplanet transit photometry across four optical bands to support space mission follow-ups.

Contribution

This paper introduces MuSCAT2, a novel 4-color simultaneous imaging instrument with high photometric precision for exoplanet transit studies at the Teide Observatory.

Findings

Achieved photometric precisions of ~0.05-0.08% in 60s bins across four bands.

Successfully demonstrated the instrument's capability with observations of WASP-12.

Started science operations in 2018 with over 250 nights annually.

Abstract

We report the development of a 4-color simultaneous camera for the 1.52~m Telescopio Carlos S\'anchez (TCS) in the Teide Observatory, Canaries, Spain. The new instrument, named MuSCAT2, has a capability of 4-color simultaneous imaging in $g$ (400--550 nm), $r$ (550--700 nm), $i$ (700--820 nm), and $z_s$ (820--920 nm) bands. MuSCAT2 equips four 1024$\times$1024 pixel CCDs, having a field of view of 7.4$\times$7.4 arcmin$^2$ with a pixel scale of 0.44 arcsec per pixel. The principal purpose of MuSCAT2 is to perform high-precision multi-color exoplanet transit photometry. We have demonstrated photometric precisions of 0.057%, 0.050%, 0.060%, and 0.076% as root-mean-square residuals of 60~s binning in $g$, $r$, $i$ and $z_s$ bands, respectively, for a G0 V star WASP-12 ($V=11.57\pm0.16$). MuSCAT2 has started science operations since January 2018, with over 250 telescope nights per year. MuSCAT2 is expected to become a reference tool for exoplanet transit observations, and will substantially contribute to the follow-up of the TESS and PLATO space missions.