Automated Realignment for VERITAS Telescopes

The VERITAS (Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System) Telescopes located in southern Arizona consists of a group of four 12m optical reflectors in order to study gamma rays at very high energies (VHE: 50 GeV - 50 TeV). As of right now alignment of the four telescopes relies on manual changes from an in-person collaborator. My research for the summer consisted of creating physical hardware and a program for an automated alignment process. The initial makeup of the hardware uses multiple 3D printed pieces that is planned to be installed on each telescope camera. The start piece will go on top of the photomultiplier tube (PMT) which will have 16 individual fibers equal space around the sensor area. The fibers will then lead to a solid 3D printed piece off to the side of the camera that condenses the fibers into a more compact circular array that is then refracted through a lens and into a camera. The camera program will then take pictures periodically to draw out the intensity of each individual fiber. The intensities will be sent to the code that will then take that data and calculate whether the telescope is in alignment with the star. If the star is out of alignment the hope is the code will then be able to calculate the correct right ascension and declination to realign the telescopes with observed star. With the manual alignment process, it is difficult to get all of the important data due to the precision of each telescope and the small drifts of the star. The hope with this automated alignment process is to help the collaborators get all the data that they need by eliminating small drifts within the data collection and without having to do extra work with realigning the telescopes manually multiple times per run.