Technical Info and Resources

Geographic Location*

Latitude: 44° 37' 50.04" N (44.630566 degrees N)
Longitude: -63° 34' 49.36" W (-63.580377 degrees W)
Elevation: 92.6-metres (at instrument height above MSL)
Time Zone: AST/ADT (UT-3 or 4 hours)
IAU Observatory Code: 851

* determined by LIDAR (latitude/longitude is WGS84, elevation is CVGD2013)

Telescope Specifications

Our main telescope is a Planewave Model CDK24 with the following specifications:

Optical Design: Corrected Dall-Kirkham
Primary Mirror Diameter: 0.61-metres
Secondary Mirror Diameter: 287-mm
Effective Diameter: 0.54-metres (21.2")
Focal length: 3962-mm                
Focal ratio: 6.50
Brightness Ratio - scope to eye: 5909x
Mount: Planewave L600 Direct-Drive mount (fork-style)

CCD Imaging

Two CCD imaging cameras are installed with the following specifications. The camera used depends on the filter chosen.

Note: as of early 2024, Camera 1 (Apogee CG-16M) is not available and is being worked on! Therefore, Camera 1 filters are not available to be requested.  

Available Filters

Note: as of early 2024, Camera 1 (Apogee CG-16M) is not available and is being worked on! Therefore, Camera 1 filters are not available to be requested. LUM requests will be assigned LUM2, RED will be assigned RED2, GRN will be assigned GRN2, and BLU will be assigned BLU2. 

*All Astrodon filters are Gen 2.

Visual Observing

Theoretical Faintest Visual Stellar Detection: 16.35 magnitudes (no light pollution)
Actual Faintest Visual Stellar Detection:  14.2 magnitudes (observation of Pluto, Sept 2015)
Theoretical Resolution: 0.19 arc seconds (with perfect atmosphere)
Minimum Magnification: 122 using the 0.2x aperture rule
Maximum Magnification: 1219 using the 2x aperture rule
              

All Sky Charts

All Sky Charts for each month of the year, needed for an ASTR1001 project, are here (as a pdf).