The Katzman Automatic Imaging Telescope (KAIT) is an
automated telescope used in the search for
supernova
A supernova is a powerful and luminous explosion of a star. It has the plural form supernovae or supernovas, and is abbreviated SN or SNe. This transient astronomical event occurs during the last evolutionary stages of a massive star or when ...
e.
The telescope had a first light in 1998, and is a noted robotic telescope. It had first recorded data in August 1996, and was formally dedicated late that year.
It was used for the Lick Observatory Supernova Search.
The KAIT is a computer-controlled
reflecting telescope
A reflecting telescope (also called a reflector) is a telescope that uses a single or a combination of curved mirrors that reflect light and form an image. The reflecting telescope was invented in the 17th century by Isaac Newton as an alternati ...
with a 76 cm
mirror
A mirror or looking glass is an object that Reflection (physics), reflects an image. Light that bounces off a mirror will show an image of whatever is in front of it, when focused through the lens of the eye or a camera. Mirrors reverse the ...
and a
CCD camera
A camera is an Optics, optical instrument that can capture an image. Most cameras can capture 2D images, with some more advanced models being able to capture 3D images. At a basic level, most cameras consist of sealed boxes (the camera body), ...
to take pictures. It is located at the
Lick Observatory
The Lick Observatory is an astronomical observatory owned and operated by the University of California. It is on the summit of Mount Hamilton, in the Diablo Range just east of San Jose, California, United States. The observatory is managed by th ...
near
San Jose, California
San Jose, officially San José (; ; ), is a major city in the U.S. state of California that is the cultural, financial, and political center of Silicon Valley and largest city in Northern California by both population and area. With a 2020 popul ...
.
KAIT can take close to 100 images per hour and observe about 1000
galaxies
A galaxy is a system of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar gas, dust, dark matter, bound together by gravity. The word is derived from the Greek ' (), literally 'milky', a reference to the Milky Way galaxy that contains the Solar System. ...
a night.
The Katzman Automatic Imaging Telescope is a robotic telescope designed to look for supernova.
The telescope uses 76 cm (30 inch) diameter mirror that feeds a CCD imager with 20 slot
filter
Filter, filtering or filters may refer to:
Science and technology
Computing
* Filter (higher-order function), in functional programming
* Filter (software), a computer program to process a data stream
* Filter (video), a software component tha ...
wheel.
The telescope is also supported by an electronic weather station, that can feed data to the robotic telescope control system.
Several computers run software that controls the telescope and take in the data from the sensors.
The telescope's development was funded by the NSF at private donors since 1989, turning 30-inch (~760 mm) telescope in a computer controlled super nova huntress.
The telescope can also monitor the brightness of
variable star
A variable star is a star whose brightness as seen from Earth (its apparent magnitude) changes with time. This variation may be caused by a change in emitted light or by something partly blocking the light, so variable stars are classified as ...
s.
Observations & research
KAIT discovered its first supernova in 1997, SN 1997bs.
The next year (1998) twenty supernova were found after improvements to the telescope, and in 1999 forty supernova were discovered.
The telescope has been noted for discovering the supernova SN 1999em.
This super nova was in the spiral galaxy
NGC 1637, and was observed later by telescope such as the
VLT (4x8.2m).
Another example of KAIT discovery was
SN 1999ec
SN 1999ec was a type Ib supernova that was discovered in the interacting galaxy NGC 2207 on October 2, 1999. It was found on images taken with the Katzman Automatic Imaging Telescope
The Katzman Automatic Imaging Telescope (KAIT) is an automate ...
, a
type Ib supernova
Type Ib and Type Ic supernovae are categories of supernovae that are caused by the stellar core collapse of massive stars. These stars have shed or been stripped of their outer envelope of hydrogen, and, when compared to the spectrum ...
that was discovered in the interacting galaxy
NGC 2207
In contemporary history, the third millennium of the anno Domini or Common Era in the Gregorian calendar is the current millennium spanning the years 2001 to 3000 ( 21st to 30th centuries). Ongoing futures studies seek to understand what is ...
on October 2, 1999.
In 2011, KAIT was one of six telescopes used for the Lick AGN Monitoring Project.
Between 1998 and 2013, KAIT had discovered 900 supernova.
In 2013, the supernova
2013ej was discovered by KAIT in the galaxy
Messier 74
Messier 74 (also known as NGC 628 and Phantom Galaxy) is a large spiral galaxy in the equatorial constellation Pisces. It is about 32 million light-years away from Earth. The galaxy contains two clearly defined spiral arms and is therefore us ...
; it was noted for being as bright as 10th magnitude.
In 2014, KAIT helped determine the age of a supernova found in the galaxy
M83, because it had images of that region of the sky from just a few days prior to its discovery, establishing it had not brightened at that time.
In 2016, KAIT spotted the super nova SN 2016coj in
NGC 4125
NGC 4125 is an elliptical galaxy
An elliptical galaxy is a type of galaxy with an approximately ellipsoidal shape and a smooth, nearly featureless image. They are one of the four main classes of galaxy described by Edwin Hubble in his Hubbl ...
, thought to be a
Type Ia supernova
A Type Ia supernova (read: "type one-A") is a type of supernova that occurs in binary systems (two stars orbiting one another) in which one of the stars is a white dwarf. The other star can be anything from a giant star to an even smaller white ...
.
In 2019, KAIT was one of the telescopes whose data was used in a study on
Blazar
A blazar is an active galactic nucleus (AGN) with a relativistic jet (a jet composed of ionized matter traveling at nearly the speed of light) directed very nearly towards an observer. Relativistic beaming of electromagnetic radiation from the ...
s.
Discoveries
See also
*
List of observatories
This is a list of astronomical observatories ordered by name, along with initial dates of operation (where an accurate date is available) and location. The list also includes a final year of operation for many observatories that are no longer in ...
*
List of telescope types
The following are lists of devices categorized as types of telescopes or devices associated with telescopes. They are broken into major classifications with many variations due to professional, amateur, and commercial sub-types. Telescopes can be ...
References
External links
The Lick Observatory Supernova Search with the Katzman Automatic Imaging Telescope(2001)
{{Portal bar, California, Astronomy, Stars, Spaceflight, Outer space, Solar System, Education, Science
Optical telescopes
Robotic telescopes
Lick Observatory
Supernovae