The Evryscope: the first full-sky gigapixel-scale telescope

Abstract

Current time-domain wide-field sky surveys generally operate with few-degree-sized fields and take many individual images to cover large sky areas each night. We present the design and project status of the Evryscope ("wide-seer"), which takes a different approach: using an array of 7cm telescopes to form a single wide-field-of-view pointed at every part of the accessible sky simultaneously and continuously. The Evryscope is a gigapixel-scale imager with a 9060 sq. deg. field of view and has an etendue three times larger than the Pan-STARRS sky survey. The system will search for transiting exoplanets around bright stars, M-dwarfs and white dwarfs, as well as detecting microlensing events, nearby supernovae, and gamma-ray burst afterglows. We present the current project status, including an update on the Evryscope prototype telescopes we have been operating for the last three years in the Canadian High Arctic.