Recent Developments at the Boquete Optical SETI Observatory and Owl Observatory

TL;DR

This paper reports recent advancements at the Boquete and Owl optical SETI observatories, highlighting improved detector technologies and expanded search parameters that enhance the detection of laser-like signals from nearby stars.

Contribution

It introduces new detector capabilities and extended search boundaries, improving the thoroughness of optical SETI observations at both observatories.

Findings

Over 5000 stellar objects searched in the past 5 years.

New detector capabilities now allow detection of pulse widths up to 50 ns.

Search boundaries extended to stars within 200 light-years.

Abstract

Progress at the privately owned Boquete Optical SETI Observatory in Panama and the Owl Observatory in Michigan is reported. The Boquete Observatory has been dedicated to the development of innovative optical SETI detectors and observations since 2010. It is currently equipped with a 0.5 meter Newtonian main telescope and a piggybacked 0.35 meter Cassegrain for tracking. Although small, the observatory's telescope and detector system has capabilities that are equivalent to most other institutional optical SETI facilities (Schuetz, M. et al., 2016). The optical SETI detectors at Boquete have evolved through many stages from a three photomultiplier coincidence detector to the current single photomultiplier version capable of detecting pulse widths up to 50 ns and for coincidence detection against a wide range of stellar background counts. The Owl Observatory photometer has similarly been in continuous development to improve performance. These activities have sought to provide practical solutions to the needs of optical SETI. Over the past 5 years the search for laser like signals at Boquete has included over 5000 stellar objects. Yet, until early 2017 year there were large gaps in the search parameters that limited the thoroughness of those searches.Reported herein are developments that have filled many of those gaps further extending the search boundaries. With the new capabilities, the search through the list of stellar candidates out to 200 ly was begun anew.