Fast Facts

The Argus Array forms an 8m-class array of 1200 telescopes providing 1.0 arcsec resolution across an 8,000 square degree field of view in every exposure. Taking images every 1 to 60 seconds, and stacking them to depths comparable to those of the deepest sky surveys, Argus will capture a continuous two-color, 120-gigapixel movie of the night sky. Argus's data will be shared with the world in real-time through public transient alerts, images, and light curves with millions of epochs for tens of millions of stars. Argus is under construction at a Northern Hemisphere site and planned to be completed in 2027.

System Parameters

  
    Instrument
  
    Field of View
    8000 sq. deg
  
    Nightly Coverage
    21,000 sq. deg
  
    Effective Aperture Diameter
    8 meters
  
    Single Telescope Aperture
    0.28 meters
  
    Detectors
    1,200 Sony IMX461ALR
  
    Image Size
    120 GPix
  
    Pixel Scale
    1.0 arcsec / pixel
  
    Read noise
    1.4e-
  
    Duty Cycle
    94% (<1 ms dead time between exposures)
  
    Bandpasses
    TBD, but likely dual band, b: 365-525 nm, r: 560-700 nm
  
    Tracking
    15 minute intervals, followed by 50 second reset
  
    Survey & Data
  
    Survey Length
    5 year survey planned; 20 year design lifetime
  
    Observing Cadence
    1 minute (gray and dark time), 1 second (bright time)
  
    Epochs
    ~20,000,000 (1s cadence, all Northern sky regions), ~300,000 (1-minute cadence, all Northern sky regions)
  
    Delivered Image Quality
    2 arcsec FWHM
  
    Data Pipeline
  
    Analysis
    Real-time image subtraction and transient detection with compression for offline analysis
  
    Storage
    107 targets and transient stamps at full cadence, full resolution coadds at 15-minute cadence and slower
  
    Public Release
    All imaging and photometric data public, with real-time alerts from all cadences
  
    Limiting Magnitudes (g-band, 5σ, dark time)
  
    Cadence
    Design Goal
    Science Requirement
    Sky Area / epoch
  
    1 second
    17.1
    16.8
    8000 sq. deg
  
    1 minute
    20.5
    20.0
    8000 sq. deg
  
    15 minute
    22.1
    21.5
    8000 sq. deg
  
    1 hour
    22.9
    22.3
    9600 sq. deg
  
    1 night
    23.9
    23.2
    21000 sq. deg
  
    7 nights
    24.7
    24.1
    22500 sq. deg
  
    6 months
    26.5
    
    29650 sq. deg