Night of Scientists 2024 at Ondrejov Observatory

[ Astronomický ústav AV ČR, Ondrejov 2024-09-27] As part of the Night of Scientists 2024, the Cherenkov telescopes located at the Ondřejov Observatory were also presented to the public. Jakub Juryšek and Dušan Mandát showcased the SST-1M project to attendees and explained related physical phenomena (the formation of particle showers, methods of observation, processing, and more). Last but not least, they answered curious questions from both young and adult visitors from the general public. Night of Scientists 2024 at Ondrejov Observatory Night of Scientists 2024 at Ondrejov Observatory ( read the corresponding article on Facebook in czech … )

Commissioning and Preliminary Observation Results of SST-1M presented at TeVPA conference in Chicago

[ Thomas Tavernier (FZU, Prague, Czech Republic), TeVPa 2024 – Chicago, 27. 8. 2024 ] SST-1M is a single-mirror small size Cherenkov telescope prototype developed by a consortium among institutes in Switzerland, Poland, and the Czech Republic. With a 4 meter mirror and a 5.6 m focal length, SST-1Ms have a broad 9 degree field of view and aim to detect gamma rays spanning the energy range of 1 to 300 TeV. The DigiCam camera incorporates a compact Photo-Detector Plane comprising 1296 hexagonal silicon photomultiplier pixels and a fully digital readout and trigger system using a 250 MHz ADC. Two SST-1M...

Cherenkov’s telescope from all sides

[ Astronomical Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences, 5. 4. 2024 ] Two Cherenkov telescopes are located at the Ondřejov observatory. What makes them unique? Cherenkov telescopes are capable of capturing high-energy gamma rays, which cannot be detected in any other way. The telescopes are operated by the Astronomical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, the Institute of Physics of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, the Palacký University in Olomouc, the Henryk Niewodniczański Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences, the University of Geneva and other institutions of the...

Mono and stereo performance of the two SST-1M telescope prototypes

Jakub Jurysek (on behalf of SST-1M Group), ICRC 2023, Nagoya, Japan, 26. 7. – 3. 8. 2023 The Single-Mirror Small-Sized Telescope, or SST-1M, was originally developed as a prototype of a small-sized telescope for CTA, designed to form an array for observations of gamma-ray-induced atmospheric showers for energies above 3 TeV. A pair of SST-1M telescopes is currently being commissioned at the Ondrejov Observatory in the Czech Republic, and the telescope capabilities for mono and stereo observations are being tested in better astronomical conditions. The final location for the telescopes will be decided based on these tests. In this contribution,...

The first Cherenkov telescopes in the Czech Republic to observe the Crab Nebula

[ Czech Academy of Sciences, 2022-05-13] Two new high-energy gamma-ray Cherenkov telescopes are now observing the skies from the observatory of the Astronomical Institute of the CAS in Ondřejov, Czech Republic. The largest optical telescopes in the country, they are currently focusing their attention on the Crab Nebula. After completing a trial run, plans are to move the telescopes from Ondřejov further away from civilisation to higher altitudes in South America. At the observatory in Ondřejov, two identical telescopes are observing some of the highest-energy photons emitted in space, i.e., particles of light produced during very turbulent processes following supernova explosions or...

The SST-1M captured first light at the Ondřejov Observatory

[ Joint Laboratory of Optics, 28. February 2022 ] On Wednesday, February 23, 2022, the SST-1M gamma-ray telescope started first observations from the Observatory of the Astronomical Institute CAS in Ondřejov. The telescope will detect gamma rays of very high energy originating from sources in our Galaxy or more distant locations of the Universe. The project is realized in teh international collaboration of reserachers from CAS, Palacký University in Olomouc, and teams from Switzerland, Poland, and Ukraine. During the fine-tuning of mechanical systems of the telescope and the camera the telescope obtained the first data from several sources in the...

Not only the James Webb Space Telescope has hexagonal mirrors

[ Astronomický ústav AV ČR, 2022-02-18] Mirrors for the second SST-1M (Small-Sized Telescope) telescope with a primary mirror diameter of 4.3 meters designed for the detection of Cherenkov radiation are currently being installed at the Ondřej observatory. Energetic electromagnetic radiation, such as X-rays or gamma rays, does not pass through the atmosphere. When a gamma photon passes through the atmosphere (as well as when a charged particle with high energy passes), a shower of secondary particles and Cherenkov radiation is produced. These sensitive telescopes with high temporal resolution can detect this Cherenkov radiation from the atmospheric shower. The sources of...

Optical system for the SST-1M, Cerenkov Gamma-ray Detection Telescope

Two unique Cerenkov telescopes (SST-1M) are installed at the Astronomical Institute of the CAS in Ondrejov. The telescopes are designed to study gamma rays with extremely high energy coming from sources in our Galaxy or in more distant places in the Universe. This is an international project involving scientists from the CAS, Palacký University in Olomouc and teams from Switzerland and Poland. The optical design of SST-1M is based on the Dawies-Cotton optical design. The 4 m diameter mirror of the telescope is divided into 18 segments and a fully digital camera composed of 1296 pixels, each with a sampling...