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Published July 10, 2017 | Submitted
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An All-Sky Optical SETI Survey

Abstract

We present plans for an all-sky search for pulsed optical SETI beacons at Agassiz station in Harvard, Massachusetts. We will use a 1.8 meter f/2.5 spherical "light bucket" (2-3 arcmin resolution) focused onto a multi-pixel camera consisting of sixteen 64-pixel photomultiplier tubes (with pixels measuring 1.5 arcmin on a side) in two matched focal planes. It will observe a 1.°6×0.°2 patch of the sky in transit mode, thereby covering the Northern sky (−20° < δ < +60°) in 150 clear nights. Fast custom IC electronics will monitor corresponding pixels for coincident optical pulses of nanosecond timescale, triggering storage of a detailed digitized waveform of the light flash. Analysis will be similar to that from our ongoing targeted search.

Additional Information

© 2000 by Andrew Howard, Paul Horowitz, and Charles Coldwell. Published by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc. with permission. We graciously acknowledge the enlightened and continued support of The Planetary Society, the Bosack-Kruger Charitable Foundation, and the SETI Institute. We also wish to thank Nathan Hazen and James Oliver for their invaluable engineering input and for the drawings used in Figures 4 and 6. We are indebted to Robert Stefanik, Joe Zajac, Joe Caruso, and Dave Latham for their general support, and for their tireless hours of observation on the targeted search program.

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August 19, 2023
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