Hot Jupiters in the Southern Sky: The HAT-South Project
HAT-South is a project to search for transiting extrasolar planets in
the Southern Hemisphere. It uses a network of wide-field
telescopes to monitor hundreds of thousands of bright stars, searching
for the characteristic dip in light that occurs when a planet passes
in front of its host star. With follow-up observations, the planets
discovered in this project will be studied extensively to determine
their density, temperature, and even atmospheric composition.
The HAT-South telescopes are located on three sites around the
Southern Hemisphere: at Siding Spring Observatory (Australia), Las
Campanas Observatory (Chile), and the Hess Site (Namibia). These
locations allow fields to be monitored 24 hours per day, which
greatly increase the rate at which planets can be discovered.
Each site hosts two "TH4" units. These TH4 units consist of four
0.18m Takahashi astrographs fitted with Apogee 4Kx4K CCDs. Each TH4
unit monitors 64 square degrees of sky at a time, so each site is capable of monitoring 128 square degrees of sky.
The HAT-South project is a collaboration between the Australia National
University (ANU), Princeton University, and the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA). For further
information relating to the ANU involvement in HAT-South, please
contact Daniel Bayliss.
Operation at Siding Spring Observatory
The HAT-South telescopes at Siding Spring have been operating since October 2009. Below is a 24 hour video clip of the telescopes on 24 October 2010.
Installation at Siding Spring - Completed
Two TH4 units have been installed at Siding Spring Observatory, Australia. Work from the installation is set out below.
The final Hat-South SSO site with telescopes and shed completed.
28 October 2009.
The Hat-South SSO installation team with two TH4 units completed.
27 October 2009.
The Hat-South SSO telescopes partway through installation.
24 October 2009.
Hat-South SSO site with wind fences now constructed around the telescope footings.
10 October 2009.
A test image of Omega Cen taken using one of the HAT-South Takahashi telescopes at MSO.
18 August 2009.
The HAT-South equipment shed in place at SSO, with the telescope footings in the foreground.
19 June 2009.
Constuction of the footings for HAT-South at SSO.
28 May 2009.
The HAT-South equipment shed before its transfer to SSO.
23 March 2009
Site preparation for the two HAT-South TH4 units at SSO.
12 November 2008.
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