ASTRI (Astrofisica con Specchi a Tecnologia Replicante Italiana) is a flagship project of the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research related to the next generation IACT (Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescope), within the framework of the CTA (Cherenkov Telescope Array) International Observatory.
In this context, INAF (Italian National Institute of Astrophysics) is currently developing a scientific and technological breakthrough to allow the study of the uppermost end of the VHE domain (a few TeV - hundreds of TeV).
The ASTRI project timeframe is of about 3 years, and foresees the full development, installation and calibration of a Small Size class Telescope prototype compliant with the requirements of the High Energy array of CTA.
The ASTRI prototype will adopt an aplanatic, wide field, double reflection optical layout in a Schwarzschild-Couder configuration.
Moreover, the focal plane instrument will explore small pixelated detector sensors such as multi-anode PMTs or Silicon PM.
Among the number of technological challenges, this telescope will be the very first instrument implementing both the Schwarzschild-Couder optical configuration and the double reflection for air Cherenkov imaging.

For other information about INAF Institutes involved in the ASTRI Project click on Collaboration in the menu above.

News

June 15, 2011

The optical design of the ASTRI dual mirror end-to-end prototype has been finally released! Now we can focus our energies and work on a design that will become a real hardware telescope with a first light around June 2013.