Equipment

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The observatory is equipped with a variety of technical instruments, and not all are limited to the observation of stellar objects. Aside from the telescope and CCD camera, we also have a solar array, a weather station, CCTV cameras, an all-sky camera plus a mechanised roof. As we develop this website, further information about these instruments will become available, but in the meantime, here are the specifications for the telescope, CCD camera and Colour Filter Wheel that we use.

Technical specifications on the 14" telescope:

Model: Celestron
Objective: 14 inches (356mm)
Focal Length: 95.4 inches (2423 mm) with an f6.3 focal reducer
Focal Ratio: 7.0 using an f6.3 focal reducer

The telescope has been fitted by BATSC with the C14 locking collar, fixing the position of the SCT's primary mirror to improve continual pointing replication and maintain better overall focus for CCD imaging.

CCD camera mounted on the 14" telescope:

Model: Apogee AP7b
CCD chip: SITe SI-502ab
Array (pixels): 512 x 512
Pixel Size: 24 micron
Area (mm): 12.3 x 12.3
Well Depth (e^-) [Binned 1:1]: >300,000
Anti-blooming: none
CTE: 0.99999
Field Of View: 14.5 x 14.5 arc minutes
Read Noise: 15e^- RMS
Dark Count (pA/cm²): 50@20°C
Dynamic Range: >86dB
Digital Resolution: 16-bit 35kHz
Shutter: Vincent 25mm blade
Mechanical Interface: T-thread Bolt Circle

Technical specifications on the Optec Intelligent Filter Wheel:

Stepper Motor: PF-35 Nippon, 48 steps/rev
Position/ID Sensors: Hall effect
Filter Diameter: 50mm
Filter Transmission Wavelengths

• Filter Wheel One
• Filter Wheel Two

We have mounted this optical equipment on two robotic telescope mounts, the Paramount GT1100s and the Paramount ME, thus providing our users with a product of exceptional quality.