The Next-Generation Transit Survey (NGTS) is a wide-field photometric survey designed to discover transiting exoplanets of Neptune-size and smaller around bright stars (magnitude V<13).
NGTS will employ an array of 12 fully-robotic sm all telescopes operating in the 600-900 nm band, thereby maximizing sensitivity to bright but relatively small host stars (K and early-M spectral type).
NGTS will be sited at ESO-Paranal, home of the ESO’s VLT telescopes, which meets strict requirements for low water vapor and excellent photometric conditions.
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The rotating sky above ESO's very large Telescopes at Paranal
Credit: ESO / Stephane Guisard |
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| INSTRUMENTATION |
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| Number of telescopes in the array |
12 |
| Aperture of a single telescope |
20 cm |
| f/D |
f/2.8 |
| Mounting |
equatorial fork |
| CCD Array |
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| Number of active pixels |
2048 x 2048 pixels |
| Pixel size |
13.5 µm x 13.5 µm |
| Image area |
27.6 mm x 27.6 mm |
| Wavelength range |
600 nm – 900 nm (visible and near IR) |
| Operation mode |
fully robotic | |
| SCHEDULE |
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| Summer 2012 |
on site installation |
| April 2013 |
start of first surveys | |
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Telescopes at Paranal
Credit: NGTS project / R. West Uni. Leicester | |
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Telescopes at Paranal
Credit: NGTS project /R. West Uni. Leicester | |
Links:
www.ngtransits.org
www.eso.org/public/teles-instr/vlt.html
Author: Ruth Titz-Weider, ruth.titz@dlr.de |