As science makes progress, proposing new discoveries every day, it is more and more interesting for the astronomical world to perform sub-millimeter observations from very suitable terrestrial sites, due to the purity of the air, as well as to other environmental factors. A site with these characteristics has been identified in the area of Dome C in the South Pole. The problems, both technical and logistic, that the installation of a radioantenna in the South Pole imposes, are easily understandable. Proceeding at the same rate as the progress of science, also the technological and industrial capacities improve, so that it is possible to overcome all the problems that the realization of a sub-millimeter Observatory in the South Pole implies. This paper aims at summarizing the Preliminary Feasibility Study of the AST (Antarctic Sub-millimeter Telescope) Radioantenna that is intended to be installed at Dome C.

Date Published: 5 August 2010
PDF: 7 pages
Proc. SPIE 7733, Ground-based and Airborne Telescopes III, 77334X (5 August 2010); doi: 10.1117/12.858885

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 7733:
Ground-based and Airborne Telescopes III
Larry M. Stepp; Roberto Gilmozzi; Helen J. Hall, Editor(s)