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The 16-in and its dome are located to the west of the main building.
Lhires III PF0001 spectrograph made by Shelyak Instruments.
*** Be really careful when changing gratings and changing micrometer settings, don't turn it past 0mm or 25mm!!!
| OTA | Ealing 16" aka Wallace 41cm |
| f/# | 10.9 |
| Diameter | 406.4mm |
| Focal length | 4429.8mm |
| arc seconds/mm ("/mm) at focal plane | 46.56"/mm |
| Primary Instrument | Lhires III Spectrograph w/SBIG ST7XME |
| Mount | Ealing 16" |
| Typical pointing accuracy | ~5-10' |
| Max exp. due to tracking | 5s wo/ autoguiding, 60mins with |
| PEC | Enabled |
| ProTrack | N/A |
| Focuser | Optec TCF-S3 Electronic Focuser |
| Filters | n/a |
| Finder field of view (arcmin) | ~5' |
| North Angle | Selectable |
| ST7 | Specifications |
| Min / Max Exposure Times (sec) | 0.12 / 3600 |
| Max Counts Unbinned | ~64k |
| Gain (electrons) | 2.3 |
| Pixel array | 765 x 510 active elements |
| Pixel dimensions | 9 microns square |
| Temperature for operation | -35 C from Ambient Typical |
| Serial Number | 9014323 |
| Autoguider | Yes |
| Celestron C8 f/10 D:203.2mm F:2032mm on stage | |
| FOV = ~ 8' x 6.1' | |
| SBIG STL Guidehead (237) 657x495 7.4um |
| Spectrograph Specs | |||||
| slit width at focal plane | ~ 29um +/- 1um | ||||
| slit width in arc seconds | ~ 1.35" | ||||
| Neon Sample Spectra | 5800Å to 7500Å | ||||
| Grating (g/mm) | 2400 | 1200 | 600 | 300 | 150 |
| Dispersion (Å/pix) @ Halpha | 0.136 | 0.3 | 0.738 | ~1.375 | ~2.75 |
| Dispersion (km/s) | 5 | 17 | 35 | 75 | 150 |
| Power of resolution | 17534 | 5900 | 2800 | 1400 | |
| Spectral domain or FOV in Å | 104 | 250 | 564 | ~1051 | ~2100 |
| Limiting magnitude S/N=100 | 5 | 6.3 | 7 | 10.4 | |
| Micrometer settings | |||||
| 0-order line | -1.0mm | 0mm | |||
| User verified | 4350@10.7mm |
~6506Å @ 2.74mm |
6506Å @ 1.300mm |
Originally designed as an instructional telescope, the 16-in and its dome were constructed in 1971. It was used by students in observing subjects until 1999.
The telescope drive has been completely refurbished by Alan Midkiff in 2008 and is now actively computer controlled using ComSoft's BBox and The Sky software.
During the summer of 2009 the Lhires III spectrograph was installed. Shortly there after, the ComSoft TCS computer blew up and was replaced. Students began using it for 410 projects Fall 2009.
During the spring of 2010 the optics were completely removed by Tim Brothers and Michael Person for recoating and polishing. It was reassembled that summer and is now restored to its original state. The secondary focuser was disabled in favor of an Optec TCF-S3 electronic focuser mounted on the rear of the telescope, right before the spectrograph entrance. Focus can now be controlled remotely through CCDSoft. The original autoguider platform has been replaced by a rigid system that has greatly improved the autoguiding capability of the C8 mounted on top of the 16" optics. An Orion X-Y stage is now used to select autoguiding targets.
The StellaCam3 video camera, which was often a source of trouble, finally died after 2 years of limited use. It was replaced with a Super Circuits pc165dnr camera.
WAO 16-in (41 cm) Telescope Information for Users from 1998.
