PRIME

Overview

PRIME is a 1.8-m diameter wide field alt-az telescope with a near IR (to H-band) prime focus camera giving a 1.13° x 1.13° field of view. In addition there will be a fibre-fed high resolution spectrograph, SAND, which will cover 900-1200Å at R ~ 55000.

PRIME is a joint Japanese-US-South African project involving the University of Osaka, The AstroBiology Center of the Japanese National Institutes of Natural Sciences, the NASA Goddard Space Flight Centre, the University of Maryland and SAAO. The fraction of time available to the South African community outright is 14%, although the data from the main survey (which will represent 50% of the observing time) will be made available to the community.

It is expected to be installed in Sutherland in the latter part of 2020.

The (outdated) website for PRIME is: [1]

Specifications:

diameter = 1.8-m

f/ratio (prime) = f/2.3

f/ratio (fibre injection) = f/3.3

prime focus detector = mosaic of 4 x H4RG-10 HgCdTe arrays with 10 micron pixels (flight spares from the WFIRST mission)

Science Drivers:

microlensing detection in the Galactic bulge (50% time) to search for exoplanets

exoplanet transits

Galactic structure

variable stars

transients (with ToO override capability)

SAAO Contact:

David Buckley (PM)