Wayne State Universitys Dan Zowada Memorial Observatory: Characterization and Pipeline of a 0.5 Meter Robotic Telescope

TL;DR

This paper describes the characterization and pipeline development for a 0.5-meter robotic telescope at Wayne State University, emphasizing its capabilities for time domain astronomy and image processing.

Contribution

The paper introduces a new software pipeline for image reduction, alignment, stacking, and photometry tailored to a robotic telescope for time domain studies.

Findings

Achieved a 5 sigma detection limit of 19.0 mag in g-band

Developed a pipeline enabling photometry in crowded fields

Demonstrated the telescope's suitability for variable object monitoring

Abstract

Wayne State University's Dan Zowada Memorial Observatory is a fully robotic 0.5m telescope and imaging system located under the dark skies of New Mexico. The observatory is particularly suited to time domain astronomy: the observation of variable objects, such as tidal disruption events, supernovae, and active galactic nuclei. We have developed a software suite for image reduction, alignment and stacking, and calculation of absolute photometry in the Sloan filters used at the telescope. Our pipeline also performs image subtraction to enable photometry of objects embedded in bright backgrounds such as galaxies. The 5 sigma detection limit of the Zowada Observatory for integration of 16 x 90 second exposures is 19.0 magnitude in g-band, 18.1 magnitude in r-band, 17.9 magnitude in i-band, and 16.6 magnitude in z-band. For a 3 sigma detection limit, measurements may be performed with greater uncertainties as deep as 19.9, 19.1. 18.9 and 17.5 magnitude in griz bands, respectively.