TAROT Reunion a telescope based on the Rapido design for reliable optical observations of fast transients

Alain Klotz (1) , Pierre Thierry

1 IRAP - Institut de recherche en astrophysique et planétologie

Rapido is a robotic telescope designed to be duplicated in order to build a network that answers specific requirements of fast transients. The challenge of Rapido is to be a low cost, very fast pointing telescope, with high reliability and a little maintenance cost. Mechanics is based on a coil winding winch. Optics and electronics are commercials. Mount of Rapido is home made and is described in details and tests on the sky are reported. The first mount of Rapido is now operated as TAROT Reunion.

Mots clés: Robotic telescope; Transient astronomy

Domaines: Astrophysique [astro-ph]; Instrumentations et Détecteurs [physics.ins-det]

Alain Klotz, Pierre Thierry. TAROT Reunion a telescope based on the Rapido design for reliable optical observations of fast transients. Experimental Astronomy, 2019, 48 (2-3), pp.121-135. ⟨10.1007/s10686-019-09638-8⟩. ⟨hal-02447892⟩