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2 The instrument


TAROT-1 features a large field of view telescope, in association with a fast slewing, fully automated mount. The main characteristics of the instrumentation are summarized in Table 1.


  
Table 1: Summary of the TAROT-1 main instrumental characteristics

\begin{tabular}
{ll}
\hline
Aperture & 25 cm, f/3.3 \\ Field of view & $2~\deg~\...
 ...V$, $R+I$\\ Limiting $V$\space magnitude & \\ in 10 s & 17\\ \hline\end{tabular}

The currently used camera was manufactured by APOGEE Corp., and includes a KAF 1300 Kodak $1024\times 1280$ CCD chip. This results in a field of view of $1\times 1.2\deg$. We are currently developping a new camera based on a Thomson CCD, whose characteristics are outlined in Table 1, which will be available in May 1999. Its main advantages are a larger fov (4 sq. deg.), a quicker readout time (1 s), and low readout and thermal noises. TAROT-1 entered into operation during the fall of 1998, at the Calern station of the Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur (France).



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