- HATNet Project
The Hungarian Automated Telescope Network (HATNet) project is a network of six small fully-automated "HAT" telescopes. The scientific goal of the project is to detect and characterize
extrasolar planets , and also to find and follow bright variable stars. The network is maintained by theHarvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics .The HAT acronym stands for "Hungarian-made Automated Telescope", because it was developed by a small group of Hungarians who met through the
Hungarian Astronomical Association . The project started in 1999 and has been fully operational since 2001 May.Equipment
The telescopes quite small (11 cm diameter), wide-field (8x8deg), fully-automated instruments with 2K x 2K CCD sensors.
The prototype instrument, HAT-1 was built from a 180 mm focal length and 65 mm aperture Nikon telephoto lens and a Kodak KAF-0401E chip of 512 × 768, 9 μm pixels. The test period was in 2000-2001 in Budapest, Konkoly Observatory.
HAT-1 was transported Budapest to Steward Observatory, Kitt Peak, Arizona, in 2001 January.(The transportation caused serious damage to the equipment, see the details at [http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/342382 Chicago Journals] . More technical descriptions are also available at this link.)
Later built telescopes use Canon 11 cm diameter f/1.8L lenses and 2K x 2 K CCD sensors.
HAT is controlled by a single Linux PC without human supervision. Data are stored in a MySQL database.
Participants in the project
HAT-1 was developed during the undergraduate (and also the first year graduate) studies of Gáspár Bakos (Eötvös Lóránd University) and at Konkoly Observatory (Budapest), under the supervision of Dr. Géza Kovács. In the development József Lázár, István Papp and Pál Sári also played an important role.
Planets discovered by HATNet
*
HAT-P-1b
*HAT-P-2b
*HAT-P-3b
*HAT-P-4b
*HAT-P-5b
*HAT-P-6b
*HAT-P-7b
*HAT-P-9b
*WASP-11b/HAT-P-10b External links
* [http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/~gbakos/HAT/ Brief description of the project]
* [http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/342382 Chicago Journals] (Deatailled technical description and history of the project)
* [http://www.iop.org/EJ/article/1538-3881/128/4/1761/204218.text.html The Astronomical Journal] (More description about the methodology and the observations)
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