Argentinean outdoor test facility for mirrors

MEDINA, M. C.; DIPOLD, J.; GARCIA, B.; MANCILLA, A.; RASZTOCKY, E.; DE SOUZA, V.; LARRARTE, J. J.; BENITEZ, M.

Cordoba

Congreso; Reunion Anual de la Asociación Argentina de Astronomía (N° 57); 2014

The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) is planned to be an Observatory for very high energy γ-ray astronomy and will consist of several tens of telescopes which account for a reflective surface of more than 10000 m2. These mirrors will be formed by a set of reflective facets. Different technological solutions, for a fast and cost efficient production of light-weight mirror facets are under test inside the CTA Consortium. Most of them involve composite structures whose behavior under real observing conditions is not yet fully tested. An outdoor test facility has been built in one of the former candidate sites for CTA, in Argentina (San Antonio de los Cobres [SAC], 3600m a.s.l) in order to monitor the optical and mechanical properties of these facets exposed to the local atmospheric conditions for a given period of time. Four prototype mirrors built with different technologies have been installed and have been monitored for 6 months. In this work we present the preliminary results of this characterization.