1. BRITE-Constellation Overview and Status Feb 2010 BRITE - Constellation BRIght Target Explorer BRITE - ATBRITE - CABRITE – PL UniBRITE BRITE-AUSTRIA BRITE-PL1 BRITE-PL2 BRITE-CA1 BRITE-CA2

2. BRITE-Constellation Overview and Status Feb 2010 BRITE – Constellation Management BRITE - ATBRITE - CA BRITE - PL W. Weiss (IfA) M. Breger (IfA) O. Koudelka (IKS/TUG) R. Kuschnig (IfA) A. Schwarzenberg-Cerny (CAC) P. Orleanski (SRC) A. Pamiatnykh (CAC) A. Pigulski (Wroclaw Univ.) BEST BRITE Executive Science Team A. Moffat (U Montreal) S. Rucinski (U Toronto) S. Mochnacki (U Toronto) J. Matthews (UBC) BIAST - BRITE International Advisory Science Team: 22 Members

3. BRITE-Constellation Overview and Status Feb 2010 BRITE Mission Goals  high precision photometry (~mmag)  selected very bright stars (<4 mag)  up to 15 primary targets per field (24deg FOV)  obtained during >= 15min per orbit (100min)  in two wavelength regions (blue-red)  long time base observations (180 d/y/field)  all sky access including polar regions  expected lifetime 2-3 years per satellite

4. BRITE-Constellation Overview and Status Feb 2010 BRITE Photometry 101 min BLUE - RED

5. BRITE-Constellation Overview and Status Feb 2010 BRITE Sky BRITE: BRI ght T arget E xplorer

6. BRITE-Constellation Overview and Status Feb 2010 BRITE Target Stars Selection  42 proposals have been submitted  13 PI‘s and their teams Austria (15), Australia (1), Belgium (2), Bulgaria (1), Canada (4), Croatia (1), Germany (6), Iran (1), Poland (2), Spain (1), Switzerland (1), U.K. (3) and USA (3) O, B and Be stars, beta Cephei stars, hot Supergiants, delta Scuti variables, gamma Doradus pulsators, roAp / CP stars, red Giants, eclipsing binaries and more BRITE CANDIDATE TARGET STAR CATALOG 4979 entries

7. BRITE-Constellation Overview and Status Feb 2010 BRITE - Satellites  nano-satellites  20cm cube spacecrafts <8kg  3 axis pointing control  LEO sunsynchronous (polar) orbit  small aperture (3cm) telescopes  wide (24deg) field of view  one instrument is RED sensitive one BLUE

8. BRITE-Constellation Overview and Status Feb 2010 BRITE Orbit and Observing Strategy  Low Earth Orbit (LEO) Sun-Synch - Dawn-Dusk  820 km, LTDN 6AM (BRITE-AT)  Orbit Period ~ 101min  15-40min/per orbit per field  1-3 fields per orbit  180 days per year  300 days per year (near pole) Sun

9. BRITE-Constellation Overview and Status Feb 2010 BRITE – Satellite Design

10. BRITE-Constellation Overview and Status Feb 2010 BRITE – Satellite Design BRITE Attitude Determination and Control System the first high performance 3 Axis ADCS for nano-satellites

11. BRITE-Constellation Overview and Status Feb 2010 BRITE-AUT Launch Madras SFL is contracted to launch BRITE-AT Q1-2011

12. BRITE-Constellation Overview and Status Feb 2010 BRITE Instrument - Telescope 5 lens system plus filter & baffle for a 24 deg cicular FOV, telecentric low distortion, no vignetting RED design BLUE design

13. BRITE-Constellation Overview and Status Feb 2010 good performance at high (+20C) temperatures low power consumption and reasonable price ReadNoise ~15e rms ! KODAK KA11002 BRITE Detectors

14. BRITE-Constellation Overview and Status Feb 2010 BRITE - Filters

15. BRITE-Constellation Overview and Status Feb 2010 BRITE Point Spread Function BRITE Blue PSF 5 deg offsets 8 pixels diameter – 80 pixels carry signal ~30“/pixel

16. BRITE-Constellation Overview and Status Feb 2010 BRITE – Field Of View 2670 pixel 4000 pixel 30“/pixel

17. BRITE-Constellation Overview and Status Feb 2010

18. (32x32pix) Raster

19. BRITE-Constellation Overview and Status Feb 2010 BRITE Onboard Data Processing processed data: sections: R nnn B1-4... backgrounds R nnn A1-2... apertures for each background median and sigma are calculated + the sum of signals values encompassed in the two apertures a total of 10 values H pix V pix R nnn B4 R nnn B2 R nnn B3 R nnn B1 BW pix ROI R nnn R nn A1 R nnn A2 X1 Y1 Y2 X2 BW... width of background [pixels]

20. BRITE-Constellation Overview and Status Feb 2010 BRITE Photometric Performance mag(V) = 0-> 1.3 sec / 14 exp per min mag(V) = 2-> 8.0 sec / 5 exp per min mag(V) = 4-> 50.0 sec / 1 exp per min mag(V) scatter

21. BRITE-Constellation Overview and Status Feb 2010 BRITE Science Ops Software Science Data Generation Code IFA Responsibility

22. BRITE-Constellation Overview and Status Feb 2010 BRITE Ground Station(s)  Primary Ground Station: IKS – TU Graz  Additional Locations: UTIAS – Toronto Canada TU Wien IfA Uni Wien CAC Warsaw UBC Vancouver

23. BRITE-Constellation Overview and Status Feb 2010 BRITE-AT Project Timeline http://www.brite-constellation.at  development of the hardware and software hardware and software  completion of two satellites June 2010 satellites June 2010  launch targeted for January 2011 January 2011 BRITE-PL1 launch late 2011, BRITE-PL2 end 2012 BRITE-CA1&2 launch late 2012

24. BRITE-Constellation Overview and Status Feb 2010 http://www.brite-constellation.at