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Science Cases and Survey Design

Low-Cost Access to the Deep, High-Cadence Sky: the Argus Optical Array
PASP, Volume 134, Issue 1033, id.035003

Nicholas M. Law, Hank Corbett, Nathan W. Galliher, Ramses Gonzalez, Alan Vasquez, Glenn Walters, Lawrence Machia, Jeff Ratzloff, Kendall Ackley, Chris Bizon, Christopher Clemens, Steven Cox, Steven Eikenberry, Ward S. Howard, Amy Glazier, Andrew W. Mann, Robert Quimby, Daniel Reichart, David Trilling

New mass-produced, wide-field, small-aperture telescopes have the potential to revolutionize ground-based astronomy by greatly reducing the cost of collecting area. In this paper, we introduce a new class of large telescope based on these advances: an all-sky, arcsecond-resolution, 1000-telescope array which builds a simultaneously high-cadence and deep survey by observing the entire sky all night. As a concrete example, we describe the Argus Array, a 5m-class telescope with an all-sky field of view and the ability to reach extremely high cadences using low-noise CMOS detectors. Each 55 GPix Argus exposure covers 20% of the entire sky to g=19.6 each minute and g=21.9 each hour; a high-speed mode will allow sub-second survey cadences for short times. Deep coadds will reach g=23.6 every five nights over 47% of the sky; a larger-aperture array telescope, with an étendue close to the Rubin Observatory, could reach g=24.3 in five nights. These arrays can build two-color, million-epoch movies of the sky, enabling sensitive and rapid searches for high-speed transients, fast-radio-burst counterparts, gravitational-wave counterparts, exoplanet microlensing events, occultations by distant solar system bodies, and myriad other phenomena. An array of O(1,000) telescopes, however, would be one of the most complex astronomical instruments yet built. Standard arrays with hundreds of tracking mounts entail thousands of moving parts and exposed optics, and maintenance costs would rapidly outpace the mass-produced-hardware cost savings compared to a monolithic large telescope. We discuss how to greatly reduce operations costs by placing all optics in a thermally controlled, sealed dome with a single moving part. Coupled with careful software scope control and use of existing pipelines, we show that the Argus Array could become the deepest and fastest Northern sky survey.

Evryscope and Wide-Field-Survey Publications

ApJ Letters

Orbital Foregrounds for Ultra-short Duration Transients (2020 ApJ Letters)
Hank Corbett, Nicholas M. Law, Alan Vasquez Soto, Ward S. Howard, Amy Glazier, Ramses Gonzalez, Jeffrey K. Ratzloff, Nathan Galliher, Octavi Fors, and Robert Quimby

The First Naked-eye Superflare Detected from Proxima Centauri (ApJL 2018 860L 30H)
Howard, Ward S.; Tilley, Matt A.; Corbett, Hank; Youngblood, Allison; Loyd, R. O. Parke; Ratzloff, Jeffrey K.; Law, Nicholas M.; Fors, Octavi; del Ser, Daniel; Shkolnik, Evgenya L.; Ziegler, Carl; Goeke, Erin E.; Pietraallo, Aaron D.; Haislip, Joshua

Refereed Journal Papers

Mysterious Dust-emitting Object Orbiting TIC 400799224 (2021 AJ 162 60)
Powell, Brian P. ; Kostov, Veselin ; Rappaport, Saul ; Tokovinin, Andrei ; Shporer, Avi ; Collins, Karen ; Corbett, Hank ; Borkovits, Tamas ; Gary, Bruce ; Chiang, Eugene ; Rodriguez, Joseph ; Law, Nicholas ; Barclay, Thomas ; Gagliano, Robert search by orcid ; Vanderburg, Andrew ; Olmschenk, Greg ; Kruse, Ethan ; Schlieder, Joshua ; Soto, Alan ; Goeke, Erin Jacobs, Thomas; Kristiansen, Martti; LaCourse, Daryll ; Omohundro, Mark ; Schwengeler, Hans ; Terentev, Ivan ; Schmitt, Allan

Rotation periods of TESS Objects of Interest from the Magellan-TESS Survey with multiband photometry from Evryscope and TESS (2021 AJ, in press)
Howard, Ward S. ; Teske, Johanna ; Corbett, Hank ; Law, Nicholas M. ; Xuesong Wang, Sharon ; Ratzloff, Jeffrey K. ; Galliher, Nathan W. ; Gonzalez, Ramses ; Vasquez Soto, Alan ; Glazier, Amy L. ; Haislip, Joshua

Low-Cost Access to the Deep, High-Cadence Sky: the Argus Optical Array (2021 PASP, in press)
Law, Nicholas M. ; Corbett, Hank ; Galliher, Nathan W. ; Gonzalez, Ramses ; Vasquez, Alan ; Walters, Glenn ; Machia, Lawrence ; Ratzloff, Jeff ; Ackley, Kendall ; Bizon, Chris ; Clemens, Christopher ; Cox, Steven ; Eikenberry, Steven ; Howard, Ward S. ; Glazier, Amy ; Mann, Andrew W. ; Quimby, Robert ; Reichart, Daniel ; Trilling, David

Discovery of an Extremely Short Duration Flare from Proxima Centauri Using Millimeter through FUV Observations
Meredith A. MacGregor, Alycia J. Weinberger, R. O. Parke Loyd, Evgenya Shkolnik, Thomas Barclay, Ward S. Howard, Andrew Zic, Rachel A. Osten, Steven R. Cranmer, Adam F. Kowalski, Emil Lenc, Allison Youngblood, Anna Estes, David J. Wilner, Jan Forbrich, Anna Hughes, Nicholas M. Law, Tara Murphy, Aaron Boley, Jaymie Matthews

Revisiting the HD 21749 planetary system with stellar activity modelling
Gan, Tianjun; Wang, Sharon Xuesong; Teske, Johanna K.; Mao, Shude; Howard, Ward S.; Law, Nicholas M.; Batalha, Natasha E.; Vanderburg, Andrew; Dragomir, Diana, et al.

EvryFlare III: Temperature Evolution and Habitability Impacts of Dozens of Superflares Observed Simultaneously by Evryscope and TESS (2020 ApJ, in press)
Ward S. Howard, Hank Corbett, Nicholas M. Law, Jeffrey K. Ratzloff, Nathan Galliher, Amy L. Glazier, Ramses Gonzalez, Alan Vasquez Soto, Octavi Fors, Daniel del Ser, Joshua Haislip

EVR-CB-004: An Inflated Hot Subdwarf O star + Unseen WD Companion in a Compact Binary Discovered with the Evryscope (2020 ApJ, in press)
Ratzloff, Jeffrey K.; Kupfer, Thomas; Barlow, Brad N.; Schneider, David; Marsh, Thomas R.; Heber, Ulrich; Corcoran, Kyle A.; Bauer, Evan; Hammerich, Steven; Corbett, Henry T.; Glazier, Amy; Howard, Ward S.; Law, Nicholas M.

Evryscope-South Survey of Upper- and Pre-main Sequence Solar Neighborhood Stars (2020 PASP, in press)
Galliher, Nathan W.; Ratzloff, Jeffrey K.; Corbett, Henry; Law, Nicholas M.; Howard, Ward S.; Glazier, Amy L.; Vasquez Soto, Alan; Gonzalez, Ramses

Evryscope and K2 Constraints on TRAPPIST-1 Superflare Occurrence and Planetary Habitability (2020, AJ, in press)
Amy Glazier, Ward Howard, Hank Corbett, Nicholas Law, Jeffrey Ratzloff, Octavi Fors, Daniel del Ser

Multi-wavelength Photometry and Progenitor Analysis of the Nova V906 Car (2020, ApJ, in press)
Jerrick Wee, Nadejda Blagorodnova, Bryan Edward Penprase, Jett Pierce Facey, Taiga Morioka, Hank Corbett, Brad N. Barlow, Thomas Kupfer, Nicholas M. Law, Jeffrey K. Ratzloff, Ward S. Howard, Ramses Gonzalez Chavez, Amy Glazier, Alan Vasquez Soto, Takashi Horiuchi

Hot Subdwarf All Southern Sky Fast Transit Survey with the Evryscope (2020ApJ 890 126R)
Ratzloff, Jeffrey K.; Barlow, Brad N.; Nemeth, Peter; Corbett, Henry T.; Walser, Stephen; Galliher, Nathan W.; Glazier, Amy; Howard, Ward S.; Law, Nicholas M.

The Robotilter: An Automated Lens / CCD Alignment System for the Evryscope (JATIS, 2020, 6a 8002R)
Jeffrey K. Ratzloff, Nicholas M. Law, Henry T. Corbett, Octavi Fors, Daniel del Ser

EVR-CB-001: An Evolving, Progenitor, White Dwarf Compact Binary Discovered with the Evryscope (ApJ 2019, 883 51R)
Ratzloff, Jeffrey K.; Barlow, Brad N.; Kupfer, Thomas; Corcoran, Kyle A.; Geier, Stephan; Bauer, Evan; Corbett, Henry T.; Howard, Ward S.; Glazier, Amy; Law, Nicholas M.

EvryFlare II: Rotation Periods and Starspot Coverage of Cool Active Stars Throughout the Spin-down Process (ApJ, in press)
Ward S. Howard, Hank Corbett, Nicholas M. Law, Jeffrey K. Ratzloff, Amy Glazier, Octavi Fors, Daniel del Ser, Joshua Haislip

EvryFlare I: Long-term Evryscope Monitoring of Flares from the Cool Stars Across Half the Southern Sky (ApJ 2019, 881 9H)
Howard, Ward S.; Corbett, Hank; Law, Nicholas M.; Ratzloff, Jeffrey K.; Glazier, Amy L.; Fors, Octavi; del Ser, Daniel; Haislip, Joshua

Variables in the Southern Polar Region Evryscope 2016 Dataset (PASP 2019, 131 1002)
Ratzloff, Jeffrey K.; Corbett, Henry T.; Law, Nicholas M.; Barlow, Brad N.; Glazier, Amy; Howard, Ward S.; Fors, Octavi; del Ser, Daniel; Trifonov, Trifon 

Building the Evryscope: Hardware Design and Performance (PASP 2019 131 1001)
Jeffrey K. Ratzloff, Nicholas M. Law, Octavi Fors, Henry T. Corbett, Ward S. Howard, Daniel del Ser, Joshua Haislip

Young and Eccentric: The Quadruple System HD 86588 (AJ 156 120T)
Tokovinin, Andrei; Corbett, Hank; Fors, Octavi; Howard, Ward; Law, Nicholas M.; Moe, Maxwell; Ratzloff, Jeffrey; Walter, Frederick M.

Bright Opportunities for Atmospheric Characterization of Small Planets: Masses and Radii of K2-3 b, c, and d and GJ3470 b from Radial Velocity Measurements and Spitzer Transits (AJ 2018 157 97K)
Kosiarek, Molly; Crossfield, Ian., et al

Evryscope Science: Exploring the Potential of All-Sky Gigapixel-Scale Telescopes (PASP 127 234L)
Law, Nicholas M.; Fors, Octavi; Ratzloff, Jeffrey; Wulfken, Philip; Kavanaugh, Dustin; Sitar, David J.; Pruett, Zachary; Birchard, Mariah N.; Barlow, Brad N.; Cannon, Kipp; Cenko, S. Bradley; Dunlap, Bart; Kraus, Adam; Maccarone, Thomas J.


PhD Thesis (more to come!)

Designing and Building the Evryscopes, Fast Transit Search Results Dr. Jeffrey Ratzloff (UNC)


Research notes, conference proceedings, ATels, etc.

The Detailed Light Curve Evolution of V1674 Her (Nova Her 2021) (AAS Research Note)
Quimby, R. M.; Shafter, A. W.; Corbett, H.

A missing piece of the habitability puzzle: the first statistical sample of M-dwarf superflare temperatures observed with multi-facility, multi-wavelength monitoring (Cool Stars 20.5)
Howard, Ward S.; Corbett, Hank T.; Law, Nicholas M.; Ratzloff, Jeffrey K.; Galliher, Nathan; Glazier, Amy L.; Gonzalez, Ramses; Vasquez, Alan

Constraints on Post-Superflare Exo-Auroral Emission with SOAR and the Evryscope Fast Transient Engine (AASTCS8 Habitable Worlds 2021)
Glazier, Amy L.; Law, Nicholas M.; Corbett, Hank; Howard, Ward S.; Vasquez Soto, Alan; Gonzalez, Ramses; Galliher, Nathan W.; Ratzloff, Jeffrey K.

Constraints on Post-Superflare Exo-Auroral Emission with SOAR and the Evryscope Fast Transient Engine (Cool Stars 20.5)
Glazier, Amy L.; Law, Nicholas M.; Corbett, Hank; Howard, Ward S.; Vasquez Soto, Alan; Gonzalez, Ramses; Galliher, Nathan W.; Ratzloff, Jeffrey K.

LIGO/Virgo S191110af: Evryscope observation report (GCN 26227)
Hank Corbett (University of North Carolina), Kendall Ackley (Monash), Nicholas Law, Ramses Gonzalez Chavez, Alan Vasquez, Jeffrey Ratzloff (UNC), Stephen S. Eikenberry (University of Florida), Ward Howard, Amy Glazier, Nathan Galliher, Dan Reichart, Josh Haislip, and Vladimir Kouprianov (UNC), Robert Quimby (San Diego State University)

Evryscopes North and South: hardware to science (2018SPIE10702E..5KR)
Ratzloff, Jeff K.; Law, Nicholas M.; Corbett, Henry T.; Fors, Octavi; Howard, Ward S.

Pre-Discovery Detection of ASASSN-18fv by Evryscope (2018ATel11467….1C)
Corbett, H.; Law, N.; Goeke, E.; Ratzloff, J.; Howard, W.; Fors, O.; del Ser, D.; Quimby, R. M.

Evryscope Detection of the First Proxima Superflare: Impacts on the Atmosphere and Habitability of Proxima b (2018LPICo2065.2039H)
Howard, W. S.; Tilley, M. A.; Corbett, H. T.; Youngblood, A. A.; Loyd, R. O. P.; Ratzloff, J. K.; Law, N. M.; Fors, O.; del Ser, D.; Shkolnik, E. L.; and 4 coauthors

EvryFlare: Flare rates and intensities for every 10 < g’ < 15 solar-type and red dwarf star in the Southern sky (2017reph.conf20205H)
Howard, Ward; Fors, Octavi; Ratzloff, Jeff; Corbett, Hank; del Ser, Daniel; Law, Nicholas

EVA: Evryscopes for the Arctic and Antarctic (2017ASPC..510..538R)
Richichi, A.; Law, N.; Tasuya, O.; Fors, O.; Dennihy, E.; Carlberg, R.; Tuthill, P.; Ashley, M.; Soonthornthum, B.

Evryscope Robotilter automated camera / ccd alignment system (2016SPIE.9908E..0WR)
Ratzloff, Jeff K.; Law, Nicholas M.; Fors, Octavi; Ser, Daniel d.; Corbett, Henry T.

The Evryscope: design and performance of the first full-sky gigapixel-scale telescope (2016SPIE.9906E..1ML)
Law, Nicholas M.; Fors, Octavi; Ratzloff, Jeffrey; Corbett, Henry; del Ser, Daniel; Wulfken, Philip

The Evryscope: the first full-sky gigapixel-scale telescope (2014SPIE.9145E..0ZL)
Law, Nicholas M.; Fors, Octavi; Wulfken, Philip; Ratzloff, Jeffrey; Kavanaugh, Dustin

New Exoplanet Surveys in the Canadian High Arctic at 80 Degrees North (2012SPIE.8444E..5CL)
Law, Nicholas M.; Sivanandam, Suresh; Murowinski, Richard; Carlberg, Raymond; Ngan, Wayne; Salbi, Pegah; Ahmadi, Aida; Steinbring, Eric; Halman, Mark; Graham, James

 

AAS-Meeting Student Presentations

Constraints on Post-Superflare Exo-Auroral Emission with SOAR and the Evryscope Fast Transient Engine (2021AAS…23751505G)
Glazier, A. L., Law, N. M., and 6 colleagues

Chasing Young Star Superflares Using the Evryscopes (2021AAS…23751504G)
Galliher, N., Howard, W., and 5 colleagues

Investigating exoplanet habitability and the stellar magnetism of cool stars across half the Southern sky via superflares, starspots, and stellar rotation. (2021AAS…23751503H)
Howard, W. S., Law, N., and 8 colleagues

Orbital Foregrounds for Ultra-Short Duration Transients (2021AAS…23750908C)
Corbett, H., Law, N., and 8 colleagues

A First Look at Earth’s Orbital Space Measured with the Evryscopes (2021AAS…23740509V)
Vasquez Soto, A. F., Corbett, H., and 5 colleagues

Automating Superflare Spectroscopy with Evryscope and SOAR (2021AAS…23712408G)
Gonzalez, R., Corbett, H., and 5 colleagues

Evryscope and K2 Constraints on TRAPPIST-1 Superflare Occurrence and Planetary Habitability (2020AAS…23632904G)
Glazier, A. L., Howard, W. S., and 5 colleagues

A Dense Foreground for Fast Optical Transients with Evryscope (2020AAS…23632208C)
Corbett, H., Law, N., and 6 colleagues

The EvryFlare Survey: High-cadence flare temperatures of a large sample of superflares and starspots observed simultaneously by Evryscope and TESS (2020AAS…23631905H)
Howard, W. S., Law, N., and 9 colleagues

The Evryscope White Dwarf Transit Survey (2020AAS…23623501G)
Galliher, N., Ratzloff, J., and 6 colleagues

A Solar System Moving Objects Survey Using the Evryscopes (2020AAS…23612904V)
Vasquez Soto, A. F., Law, N., and 6 colleagues

A New Near Earth Object Survey Using the Evryscopes (2020AAS…23527802V)
Vasquez Soto, A., Law, N., and 5 colleagues

Searching for Optical GRB Afterglows with the Evryscope (2020AAS…23520606G)
Gonzalez, R., Corbett, H., and 6 colleagues

Evryscope Searches for Circumbinary Planets (2020AAS…23517019G)
Glazier, A. L., Law, N. M., and 7 colleagues

Measurement of the Bright and Fast Transient Foreground with the Evryscope Fast Transient Engine (2020AAS…23515401C)
Corbett, H., Law, N., and 7 colleagues

Evryscope-South Survey of Young Upper-main and Pre-main Sequence Solar Neighborhood Stars (2020AAS…23511022G)
Galliher, N. W., Ratzloff, J. K., and 6 colleagues

Evryscope Photometry of the New Hot Subdwarf Reflection Effect Binary EC 01578-1743 (2019AAS…23346403W)
Walser, Stephen, Corcoran, Kyle A., and 8 colleagues

Fast Cadence Planet-searches with the All-sky, Gigapixel-scale Evryscope (2019AAS…23342201R)
Ratzloff, Jeff, Law, Nicholas, and 5 colleagues

All-sky rapid transient searches with the Evryscope network (2019AAS…23336311C)
Corbett, Henry T., Fors, Octavi, and 8 colleagues

Evryscope Observations of Post-Common-Envelope Hot Subdwarf Systems (2019AAS…23336016C)
Corcoran, Kyle A., Barlow, Brad, and 8 colleagues

Evryscope Constraints on TRAPPIST-1 Superflare Occurrence and Planetary Habitability (2019AAS…23324705G)
Glazier, Amy, Howard, Ward S., and 7 colleagues

Evryscope flares as probes of the space weather environments of Proxima b and the nearest rocky exoplanets (2019AAS…23320301H)
Howard, Ward S., Tilley, Matt A., and 15 colleagues

Stellar activity for every TESS star in the Southern sky (2018AAS…23131003H)
Howard, Ward S., Law, Nicholas, and 4 colleagues

Rapid All-Sky Transient Discovery and Analysis with Evryscope (2018AAS…23123106C)
Corbett, Henry T., Law, Nicholas, and 4 colleagues

Fast cadence planet-searches with the all-sky, gigapixel-scale Evryscope (2018AAS…23120405R)
Ratzloff, Jeff and Law, Nicholas

Updated O-C Diagrams for Several Bright HW Vir Binaries Observed with the Evryscope (2018AAS…23115023C)
Corcoran, Kyle A., Barlow, Brad, and 5 colleagues

Targeted-mode pipeline for the Evryscope: a minute cadence, 10,000-square-degree FoV, gigapixel-scale telescope (2015AAS…22533209F)
Fors, Octavi, Law, Nicholas M., Wulfken, Philip J., and Ratzloff, Jeffrey

Image Quality of the Evryscope: Method for On-Site Optical Alignment (2015AAS…22525807W)
Wulfken, Philip J., Law, Nicholas M., Ratzloff, Jeffrey, and Fors, Octavi

Mechanical design for the Evryscope: a minute cadence, 10,000-square-degree FoV, gigapixel-scale telescope (2015AAS…22525806R)
Ratzloff, Jeff, Law, Nicholas M., Fors, Octavi, and Wulfken, Philip J.