The Zwicky Transient Facility: Observing System
Richard Dekany (1), Roger M. Smith (1), Reed Riddle (1), Michael, Feeney (1), Michael Porter (1), David Hale (1), Jeffry Zolkower (1), Justin, Belicki (1), Stephen Kaye (1), John Henning (1), Richard Walters (1), John, Cromer (1), Alex Delacroix (1), Hector Rodriguez (1)
TL;DR
The Zwicky Transient Facility Observing System is a sophisticated, wide-field astronomical survey instrument designed to capture and analyze transient astrophysical phenomena with high efficiency and image quality.
Contribution
This paper details the design, optical implementation, and performance of the ZTF Observing System, including its novel cryogenic CCD mosaic camera and robotic survey capabilities.
Findings
Delivered high-quality images with the new optical design
Achieved efficient robotic survey operations
Demonstrated detector performance and data delivery
Abstract
The Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) Observing System (OS) is the data collector for the ZTF project to study astrophysical phenomena in the time domain. ZTF OS is based upon the 48-inch aperture Schmidt-type design Samuel Oschin Telescope at the Palomar Observatory in Southern California. It incorporates new telescope aspheric corrector optics, dome and telescope drives, a large-format exposure shutter, a flat-field illumination system, a robotic bandpass filter exchanger, and the key element: a new 47-square-degree, 600 megapixel cryogenic CCD mosaic science camera, along with supporting equipment. The OS collects and delivers digitized survey data to the ZTF Data System (DS). Here, we describe the ZTF OS design, optical implementation, delivered image quality, detector performance, and robotic survey efficiency.
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