PLATO webcams

The most recent images are at the top-left under each section. The time between images is usually one hour (HRCAM is currently every 15 minutes). Each image, apart from HRCAM, is the average of 128 individual images taken over about a minute. The images shown here are highly compressed versions of the originals, which are stored on disk at Dome A. The timestamps on the images are Sydney local time, with the offset from UTC as indicated.

Last updated: Thu 31 Jan 2013 15:30 +11 (Thu 31 Jan 2013 04:30 UTC)

HRCAM

All-sky camera images. The Iridium satellite antennae are visible at bottom left. Kunlun Station is at the right, just above the centre. The original images, stored at Dome A, are 15Mpixels in size; these thumbnails are 0.02Mpixels. The exposure time in fractions of a second is given in the caption.

 

Snodar

Looking down at the Snodar off-axis parabola, which looks blue when it is reflecting the daytime sky. The compression driver is the black object at top-right, supported by three struts (two of which are visible). The white segments are the sound-proofing around Snodar.

 

FTS

A cropped section of a larger image showing the window of the FTS experiment. A brush and calibration load sometimes swings into position.

 

Engine Module

Showing the six diesel engines that power PLATO. The webcamera also has a microphone, and we record 10 seconds of sound every hour to minitor the engine RPM and listen for any problems.

 

CSTAR

A cropped section of a larger image showing the entrance apertures of the four CSTAR telescopes.

 

Kunlun

Kunlun Station is the red building. These images are sometimes overexposed, and Kunlun Station can appear yellow. On 4 Feb 2010 the camera was blown by a wind gust and changed its position. It has been wobbly every since.