POINT-AGAPE

The POINT-AGAPE survey (Pixel-lensing Observations with the Isaac Newton Telescope-Andromeda Galaxy Amplified Pixels Experiment) was carried out in 1999-2001, monitoring Andromeda (M31) stars for transients that could be gravitational microlensing by MACHOs, to test models of dark matter. If MACHOs make up the dark matter halos of the Milky Way and M31, then stars in M31 would show rare-but-occasional microlensing. POINT-AGAPE began as a project called AGAPE, Andromeda Galaxy Amplified Pixels Experiment, which tested some of the methodology, and was renamed when the Isaac Newton Telescope (INT) became involved. POINT-AGAPE produced some MACHO candidates and also discovered other transients of astronomical interest, such as novae.