The R2Pub Telescopes for Surveying: An Overview and Performance Evaluation of the System
Xuan Song, Xiaofeng Wang, Jin Zhu, Jian Li, Jincheng Guo, Danfeng Xiang, Xin Li, Cheng Liu, Yuanhang Ning, Zhishuai Ge, Zhenzhen Shao, Xiaochen Zheng, Yi Yang, Lei Zhang, Yaqing Shi, Dongyao Zhao, Xiangyun Zeng, Jun Mo, Tengfei Song, Yufeng Fan, Yu Liu, Jingxing Wang, Shousheng He, Ciren Wangdui, Jujia Zhang, Xuefei Zhang, Kai Ye, Jinming Bai, Xiaojun Jiang, Xiaoming Zhang, Peng Qiu, Jicheng Zhang
TL;DR
The paper presents the R2Pub telescope as a 60 cm equatorial binocular system developed by the Beijing Planetarium for time-domain astronomy. It details the design, instrumentation, and survey capabilities, including a dual-tube, prime-focus configuration with approximately 18 square degrees per tube and the ability to observe in two bands simultaneously. Commissioning tests at the Daocheng site (4700 m) show a 5-sigma limiting magnitude of about 18.7 mag in the Pan-STARRS r' band with a 60 s exposure, demonstrating competitive sensitivity under good seeing and dark-sky conditions. The work positions R2Pub as a platform for discovering and characterizing variable stars, transients such as supernovae and GRB afterglows, and other unknown events, with implications for time-domain studies and public outreach.
Abstract
The R2Pub telescope, built by the Beijing Planetarium, is a 60 cm equatorial binocular telescope located at the Daocheng site of Yunnan Observatories in China, at an altitude of about 4700 m. This paper presents an overview of the R2Pub telescope system, including its design, instrumentation, and survey capabilities, and reports an initial evaluation of its system performance. R2Pub is a prime-focus binocular system, with each optical tube covering a field of view of approximately 18 square degrees. It is designed to detect a wide range of transient and variable sources in the local universe, such as variable stars, eclipsing binaries, supernovae, gamma-ray burst afterglows, tidal disruption events, active galactic nuclei, and other unknown transients. The observatory infrastructure, including the dome, equatorial mount, optical tubes, and associated subsystems, has been fully constructed and installed, and the system has entered the commissioning phase. Benefiting from the high-altitude location, good seeing conditions, and dark sky background at the Daocheng site, performance tests during commissioning show that the R2Pub system can reach a 5-sigma limiting magnitude of about 18.7 mag in the Pan-STARRS r' band with a 60 s exposure. Ongoing observations with R2Pub are expected to contribute to studies of variable and transient phenomena and to enhance public outreach in astronomy. The binocular design enables simultaneous dual-band observations, providing instantaneous color information for transient sources and improving the classification and physical characterization of their properties and evolution.