The University of Tokyo Atacama Observatory 6.5m telescope project

Yuzuru Yoshii; Tsutomu Aoki; Mamoru Doi; Toshihiro Handa; Kimiaki Kawara; Daisuke Kato; Kotaro Kohno; Masahiro Konishi; Shintaro Koshida; Takeo Minezaki; Natsuko Mitani; Takashi Miyata; Kentaro Motohara; Shigeyuki Sako; Takao Soyano; Toshihiko Tanabe; Masuo Tanaka; Ken'ichi Tarusawa; Leonardo Bronfman; Maria Teresa Ruiz; Mario Hamuy

doi:10.1117/12.856680

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6 August 2010 The University of Tokyo Atacama Observatory 6.5m telescope project

Yuzuru Yoshii, Tsutomu Aoki, Mamoru Doi, Toshihiro Handa, Kimiaki Kawara, Daisuke Kato, Kotaro Kohno, Masahiro Konishi, Shintaro Koshida, Takeo Minezaki, Natsuko Mitani, Takashi Miyata, Kentaro Motohara, Shigeyuki Sako, Takao Soyano, Toshihiko Tanabe, Masuo Tanaka, Ken'ichi Tarusawa, Leonardo Bronfman, Maria Teresa Ruiz, Mario Hamuy

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Proceedings Volume 7733, Ground-based and Airborne Telescopes III; 773308 (2010) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.856680
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2010, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

The University of Tokyo Atacama Observatory (TAO) is a project to construct a 6.5m infrared-optimized telescope at the summit of Co. Chajnantor, 5,640 m altitude, in northern Chile, promoted by Institute of Astronomy, University of Tokyo. Thanks to the high altitude and low water vapor, continuous window from 0.9 to 2.5μm as well as new windows at wavelength longer than 25μm appears. The site shows extremely low precipitable water vapor of 0.5mm (25 percentile), and fraction of usable night is more than 80%. Measured median seeing is 0".69, which is comparable or better than major observatories over the world. Prior to the 6.5m telescope, a 1m pathfinder telescope called miniTAO is installed and started observations in 2009. Its successes of Paschen α imaging at 1.875 μm and mid-infrared observations at 30μm confirm promising capabilities of the site. The 6.5m telescope is now at a design phase, and two facility instruments are now being constructed, which are a near-infrared imager/multi-object spectrograph with a field of view of 9'.6 and a mid-infrared imager/spectrograph for observations in 2 to 38μm.

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Yuzuru Yoshii, Tsutomu Aoki, Mamoru Doi, Toshihiro Handa, Kimiaki Kawara, Daisuke Kato, Kotaro Kohno, Masahiro Konishi, Shintaro Koshida, Takeo Minezaki, Natsuko Mitani, Takashi Miyata, Kentaro Motohara, Shigeyuki Sako, Takao Soyano, Toshihiko Tanabe, Masuo Tanaka, Ken'ichi Tarusawa, Leonardo Bronfman, Maria Teresa Ruiz, and Mario Hamuy "The University of Tokyo Atacama Observatory 6.5m telescope project", Proc. SPIE 7733, Ground-based and Airborne Telescopes III, 773308 (6 August 2010); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.856680

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