Paper 13101-47
The WINTER robotic software system: autonomous control and scheduling for a time-domain astronomy telescope
19 June 2024 • 10:30 - 10:50 Japan Standard Time | Room G314, North - 3F
Abstract
The Wide-Field Infrared Transient Explorer (WINTER) is a new fully robotic infrared time-domain survey instrument at the Palomar Observatory, commissioned in June 2023. WINTER is performing a seeing-limited time domain survey of the infrared (IR) sky to detect, discover, and characterize astrophysical time-domain phenomena. As a dedicated observatory for real-time detection and rapid follow-up of infrared transient and variable targets, WINTER represents a new capability for multi-messenger astrophysics. We will describe the robotic software architecture of the WINTER Supervisor Program (WSP) which handles autonomous scheduling of both surveys and target-of-opportunity interrupts, as well as control and remote monitoring of the observatory, telescope, and cameras.