A Wide-field, Optical/Infrared, 2.5 m class Telescope for Antarctica

Abstract

Abstract. This report provides the recommendations of ARENA Work-ing Group 1 concerning the development of and objectives for a wide-field, optical / infrared, 2.5m class telescope for Antarctica. It discussesthe key science drivers for such a telescope, the performance and ca-pabilities it should have, and the logistics and infrastructure issuesrelevant to its construction and operation. 1 The Unique Potential of Dome C: Top Level Science Cases An optical/infrared telescope at Dome C would be supremely powerful for its size,enjoying not only a substantial advantage in both sensitivity and photometric pre-cision over comparable ground-based facilities, but also having a wide-field, high-resolution, high-cadence imaging capability otherwise achievable only from space.This is a result of the improved background, transparency, stability and seeingconditions on the Antarctic plateau over temperate latitude sites (see Aristidi etal., 2009) for a summary of current knowledge about Dome C site conditions).The low infrared background at Dome C enables a telescope placed there to equalthe sensitivity, at some wavelengths, of a telescope over three times its diameter