Wayne State University’s Dan Zowada Memorial Observatory: Characterization and Pipeline of a 0.5 m Robotic Telescope

Abstract

Wayne State University’s Dan Zowada Memorial Observatory is a fully robotic 0.5 m telescope and imaging system located under the dark skies of New Mexico. The observatory is particularly suited to time domain astronomy: the observation of variable objects, such as tidal disruption events, supernovae, and active galactic nuclei. We have developed a software suite for image reduction, alignment and stacking, and calculation of absolute photometry in the Sloan filters used at the telescope. Our pipeline also performs image subtraction to enable photometry of objects embedded in bright backgrounds such as galaxies. The 5σ detection limit of the Zowada Observatory for integration of 16 × 90 s exposures is 19.0 mag in g-band, 18.1 mag in r-band, 17.9 mag in i-band, and 16.6 mag in z-band. For a 3σ detection limit, measurements may be performed with greater uncertainties as deep as 19.9, 19.1. 18.9 and 17.5 mag in griz bands, respectively.