Abstract

The OPA (Original PolyOculus Array) project employs the PolyOculus technology to create a large-area-equivalent telescope by using fiber optics and a photonic lantern to link seven semi-autonomous, small, inexpensive, commercial-off-the-shelf telescopes. OPA will use seven, Celestron 11” telescopes with iOptron central-balanced equatorial mounts (CEM 70) to create a ~0.75m equivalent optical telescope for spectroscopic follow up observations. The seven-pack in OPA will be the prototype for a future, larger PolyOculus-driven array, as well as other future PolyOculus arrays with different applications. The OPA array will include 7 acquisition and guiding systems (one per telescope) to appropriately center objects in the telescopes’ field of view along with an atmospheric dispersion corrector for each unit. That light will then be sent through single optical fibers (one fiber per telescope) and to a photonic lantern where the light from all seven telescopes will be combined then sent to a spectrograph. OPA will be commissioned and operated at Mount Laguna Observatory in southern California. We will present an update on the status of OPA development.

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