TESSVisibility -- When was my favorite star or asteroid observed by TESS?
Andr\'as P\'al (1,2,3) ((1) Konkoly Observatory, Research Centre for, Astronomy, Earth Sciences, Budapest, Hungary, (2) E\"otv\"os Lor\'and, University, Institute of Physics, Budapest, Hungary, (3) MIT Kavli Institute, for Astrophysics, Space Research, Cambridge, MA, USA)
TL;DR
TESSVisibility is a portable tool that efficiently determines the current or future visibility of stars and Solar System objects by TESS with high accuracy, aiding researchers in planning observations.
Contribution
The paper introduces a lightweight, portable software tool that retrieves TESS visibility data for multiple objects with pixel-level accuracy, addressing a gap in existing resources.
Findings
Provides accurate visibility data considering CCD gaps and sector boundaries.
Supports bulk retrieval for stationary and moving objects.
Implemented in C and UNIX shell for portability.
Abstract
While Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) covers a considerable area of the sky during routine observations and the pointing schedule is easy to follow, it is not obvious to retrieve the current and/or predicted visibility of a bulk amount of objects, considering both stationary and moving Solar System targets like asteroids or comets. The program `tessvisibility` is a small piece of highly portable code implemented in both C an UNIX shell, providing functionalities for such bulk retrievals at the accuracy of a TESS pixel. This accuracy includes the gaps between the focal plane CCDs, the gaps between the cameras as well as at the sector-level treatment to obtain visibility information.
Peer Reviews
No public reviews on file for this paper yet. If you reviewed it on a platform where reviews are public (OpenReview, ICLR, NeurIPS, ICML), you can paste yours below so the community can read it here.
Videos
No videos yet. Explain this paper in a talk, walkthrough, or lecture? Add one.