Tracking Stars with the Fluorescence Detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory

Camin, D. V.; Grassi, V.; Sánchez, F.; Scherini, V.
Bibliographical reference

Proceedings of the 28th International Cosmic Ray Conference. July 31-August 7, 2003. Trukuba, Japan. Under the auspices of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP). Editors: T. Kajita, Y. Asaoka, A. Kawachi, Y. Matsubara and M. Sasaki, p.903

Advertised on:
7
2003
Number of authors
4
IAC number of authors
0
Citations
0
Refereed citations
0
Description
Recording tracks of stars traversing the field of view of the Auger's fluorescence detector (FD) is a powerful to ol to monitor various FD parameters. For instance, the telescope absolute pointing and its stability during the life of the experiment, the sky quality and the uniformity of the photo catho des response, are good examples. Regular control of those tracks would allow checking the telescopes stability during the whole life of the experiment, estimated to be about 20 years. The Engineering Array phase of Auger comprised 32 Cherenkov tanks plus a few auxiliary ones and 2 fluorescence telescopes each one covering 30o in azimuth by 30o in elevation. All 880 PMTs of both telescopes have been equipp ed with a novel opto electronic system developed to perform a highly sensitive measurement of the DC component of the ano de current, despite the PMT is biased with catho de grounded. This method demonstrated to be extremely sensitive even to 5.4 visual magnitude stars that could be clearly recorded although an UV filter was present at the telescopes aperture. We report records of stars of various magnitudes, a reconstruction of the pointing of one of the telescopes, and comparisons of a PMTs response to shower and star signals.