Auxiliary control systems for Pachmarhi array of Cverenkov telescopes

Abstract

Pachmarhi Array of Cverenkov Telescopes (PACT) consists of 25 Telescopes deployed over an area of 100m x 80m. The experiment is based on atmospheric Cverenkov technique to detect Very High Energy celestial gamma-rays using wavefront sampling method. Each telescope consists of 7 large area parabolic mirrors mounted para-axially on an equatorial mount and a fast photo-multiplier tube at the focus of each mirror. For efficient operation of the experiment 3 automated control systems were developed and installed, viz. Automated Computerized Telescope Orientation System (ACTOS) to control the pointing and tracking of individual telescopes, Automatic Photo-multiplier Exposure System (APES) to facilitate the exposure of photo-tubes only during observations, and Computerized Automated Rate Adjustment and Monitoring System (CARAMS) to ensure uniform gains for all the phototube - mirror systems. The design features and performance of each of these systems are discussed.