Photo: A 0.8m telescope of the type to be installed for VeloceRAPTOR by ASA AstroSysteme Austria/VEGA Sternwarte Salzburg
RAPTOR is a 0.8m telescope installed at Mount Kent Observatory and feeds light to the spectrograph equipment on site for stellar and exoplanet research.
The aim of the RAPTOR telescope is to respond to the need for ultra-precise robotic astronomical spectroscopy, which is crucial for a broad range of science cases in stellar astronomy and planetary systems research.
RAPTOR stands for Robotic Asteroseismic and Planet-finding Telescope for Observing Remotely and is designed for survey projects requiring many repeated observations over a long period of time.
RAPTOR will significantly improve Australia’s capabilities in astronomical spectroscopy, enabling a range of observations from detecting and characterising exoplanets including the search for earth-like exoplanets around nearby stars, to investigating stellar activity and pulsations.
RAPTOR is Macquarie University led collaboration with UniSQ and other partners and adopts a similar design to the successful MINERVA-Australis exoplanet science project.
