The ASAS-3 system

Location	Chile, LCO
Latitude	29.01°S
Longitude	70.70139°W
Altitude	2215 m
# of t-scopes	2
Filters	V, I
Lens	200/2.8 (Minolta)
FoV	8.5° x 8.5°
CCD	2048 x 2048 (AP-10)
Exp. time	180s
# of V frames	> 334,000
# of I frames	> 282,000

The ASAS-3 system was installed in the 10-inch astrograph dome of the Las Campanas Observatory in August 2000.

It consisted of two wide-field telescopes, each equipped with 200/2.8 Minolta telephoto lens and 2Kx2K AP-10 CCD camera (made by Apogee Inc), cover 8.8x8.8 deg of the sky through the V and I filters; and of one narrow-field telescope: F=750mm, D=250mm, F/3.3 which is a Cassegrain-like instrument with 3-element Wyne corrector. It has the same 2Kx2K AP-10 CDD camera and I filter. FOV is 2.2x 2.2 deg, but correct PSF (FWHM < 2.5 pixels) is currently available only inside the circular field of ~1 deg radius.

In April 2002 the ASAS-3 system has moved to the new automated enclosure in which all four instruments were installed.
The fourth one is a very-wide-field telescope equipped with the 50 mm lens and another AP-10 camera. It features 36x26 deg. FOV and observes only a few selected fields in purpose to test instrument sensitivity for fast transient events.

The new enclosure was made at the Warsaw University shops. It's main feature is lightweigth clam-shell which two parts swing to the sides opening the sky to the ~20 deg. above horizon. Shells are driven by off-the-shelf gate-motors. Inside the enclosure there is a stable rack housing computers on its bottom level and telescopes on the upper.

Here you can find photographs of the ASAS-3 hardware.

This system is directly connected to the BACODINE network and is ready for immediate follow-up observations of GRB events.