The RoboPol pipeline and control system

Abstract

We describe the data reduction pipeline and control system for the RoboPol project. The RoboPol project is monitoring the optical R-band magnitude and linear polarization of a large sample of active galactic nuclei that is dominated by blazars. The pipeline calibrates and reduces each exposure frame, producing a measurement of the magnitude and linear polarization of every source in the 13 arcmin × 13 arcmin field of view. The control system combines a dynamic scheduler, real-time data reduction, and telescope automation to allow high-efficiency unassisted observations. © 2014 The Authors. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society.