Design, Testing, and Commissioning of the Sun Yat-sen University (SYSU) 80 cm Infrared Telescope

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Dong, Zhong-Nan, Ma, Bin, Chen, Chun, Huang, Wei-Sen, Li, Jin-Ji, Lin, Jia-Qi, Shi, Yun, Zhang, Hao-Ran, Cao, Duo-Le, Chen, Bao-Gang, Deng, Tai-Ran, Gao, Rui-Chen, Hu, Yi, Li, Hong-Zhuang, Li, Xia, Lin, Pu, Liu, Yang, Ma, Bo, Shen, Rong-Feng, Song, Li-Duo, Xu, Fang-Yu, Yang, Hao-Nan, Yu, Yan, Yuan, Jun, Zeng, Xiang-Tao, Zheng, Hao-Yuan
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2026
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author Dong, Zhong-Nan
Ma, Bin
Chen, Chun
Huang, Wei-Sen
Li, Jin-Ji
Lin, Jia-Qi
Shi, Yun
Zhang, Hao-Ran
Cao, Duo-Le
Chen, Bao-Gang
Deng, Tai-Ran
Gao, Rui-Chen
Hu, Yi
Li, Hong-Zhuang
Li, Xia
Lin, Pu
Liu, Yang
Ma, Bo
Shen, Rong-Feng
Song, Li-Duo
Xu, Fang-Yu
Yang, Hao-Nan
Yu, Yan
Yuan, Jun
Zeng, Xiang-Tao
Zheng, Hao-Yuan
author_facet Dong, Zhong-Nan
Ma, Bin
Chen, Chun
Huang, Wei-Sen
Li, Jin-Ji
Lin, Jia-Qi
Shi, Yun
Zhang, Hao-Ran
Cao, Duo-Le
Chen, Bao-Gang
Deng, Tai-Ran
Gao, Rui-Chen
Hu, Yi
Li, Hong-Zhuang
Li, Xia
Lin, Pu
Liu, Yang
Ma, Bo
Shen, Rong-Feng
Song, Li-Duo
Xu, Fang-Yu
Yang, Hao-Nan
Yu, Yan
Yuan, Jun
Zeng, Xiang-Tao
Zheng, Hao-Yuan
contents The Sun Yat-sen University (SYSU) 80 cm telescope is a new generation near-infrared (NIR) facility in China dedicated to time-domain astronomy, while also serving as a testbed for emerging NIR cameras. Commissioned in October 2024 at the 4100 m Lenghu site on the Tibetan Plateau in China, the telescope adopts a reflective Cassegrain design with two Nasmyth foci for J and K bands. The J band imaging system, initially equipped with a 640 x 512 off-the-shelf InGaAs camera (INS Mars640) and upgraded in June 2025 to a 1280 x 1024 science-grade, deeply cooled camera (YNAOIR), achieves background-limited performance with a dark current of ~ 14 e-/s/pix and a readout noise of ~ 11 e-. The system reaches a limiting magnitude of J ~ 17 mag (Vega system) in single 20 s exposures and depths of J ~ 19.4 mag with stacked 30 minute exposures. For a variable with J ~ 14 mag during on-sky tests, the system delivers millimagnitude-level photometric precision. Since commissioning, the telescope observed transients such as gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), supernovae and comets, variables including active galactic nuclei (AGNs), high-redshift quasars (z > 6), and brown dwarfs, as well as deep-field imaging reaching J ~ 20.5 mag. This validates the feasibility of using InGaAs cameras for astronomical observations, encouraging other institutions to develop dedicated infrared telescopes or integrate infrared cameras into existing optical telescopes.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2605_02339
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Design, Testing, and Commissioning of the Sun Yat-sen University (SYSU) 80 cm Infrared Telescope
Dong, Zhong-Nan
Ma, Bin
Chen, Chun
Huang, Wei-Sen
Li, Jin-Ji
Lin, Jia-Qi
Shi, Yun
Zhang, Hao-Ran
Cao, Duo-Le
Chen, Bao-Gang
Deng, Tai-Ran
Gao, Rui-Chen
Hu, Yi
Li, Hong-Zhuang
Li, Xia
Lin, Pu
Liu, Yang
Ma, Bo
Shen, Rong-Feng
Song, Li-Duo
Xu, Fang-Yu
Yang, Hao-Nan
Yu, Yan
Yuan, Jun
Zeng, Xiang-Tao
Zheng, Hao-Yuan
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
The Sun Yat-sen University (SYSU) 80 cm telescope is a new generation near-infrared (NIR) facility in China dedicated to time-domain astronomy, while also serving as a testbed for emerging NIR cameras. Commissioned in October 2024 at the 4100 m Lenghu site on the Tibetan Plateau in China, the telescope adopts a reflective Cassegrain design with two Nasmyth foci for J and K bands. The J band imaging system, initially equipped with a 640 x 512 off-the-shelf InGaAs camera (INS Mars640) and upgraded in June 2025 to a 1280 x 1024 science-grade, deeply cooled camera (YNAOIR), achieves background-limited performance with a dark current of ~ 14 e-/s/pix and a readout noise of ~ 11 e-. The system reaches a limiting magnitude of J ~ 17 mag (Vega system) in single 20 s exposures and depths of J ~ 19.4 mag with stacked 30 minute exposures. For a variable with J ~ 14 mag during on-sky tests, the system delivers millimagnitude-level photometric precision. Since commissioning, the telescope observed transients such as gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), supernovae and comets, variables including active galactic nuclei (AGNs), high-redshift quasars (z > 6), and brown dwarfs, as well as deep-field imaging reaching J ~ 20.5 mag. This validates the feasibility of using InGaAs cameras for astronomical observations, encouraging other institutions to develop dedicated infrared telescopes or integrate infrared cameras into existing optical telescopes.
title Design, Testing, and Commissioning of the Sun Yat-sen University (SYSU) 80 cm Infrared Telescope
topic Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.02339