Hicks Observatory Specifications
The Hicks Observatory houses a 0.4m (16") Meade LX200-ACF f/10 Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope. A 0.67x focal reducer is inserted into the telescope when imaging to give a larger field of view. Imaging is carried out via a SBIG ST10-XME CCD camera with an integrated UBVRI filter wheel.
A 80mm diameter, 670mm focal length refractor is attached to the main telescope which incorporates an unfiltered (white light) Starlight Xpress Lodestar CCD which is used for autoguiding the main telescope.
It should be noted that atmospheric extinction from the Hicks Observatory is highly variable from night to night. Some examples of measured extinction are given in a table below.
| 0.40m Optical Specifications |
| |
without focal reducer |
with 0.67x focal reducer |
| aperture |
406.4mm |
| focal length |
4064mm |
2723mm |
| focal ratio |
f/10 |
f/6.7 |
| SBIG ST10-XME CCD field of view |
12' 36" arcmin x 8' 28" arcmin |
18' 49" arcmin x 12' 38" arcmin |
| SBIG ST10-XME CCD plate scale |
0.35 arcsec/pixel (binned 1x1)
0.7 arcsec/pixel (binned 2x2)
1.1 arcsec/pixel (binned 3x3) |
0.52 arcsec/pixel (binned 1x1)
1.04 arcsec/pixel (binned 2x2)
1.56 arcsec/pixel (binned 3x3) |
| 0.40m CCD Specifications |
| make and model |
SBIG ST10-XME |
| imager size (WxH) |
14.9mm x 10mm |
| pixel array (WxH) |
2184 pixels x 1472 pixels |
| pixel size (WxH) |
6.8µm x 6.8µm |
| Hicks Observatory Atmospheric Extinction |
| date, telescope and filter |
airmass range |
atmospheric extinction |
| 2010_10_27, 0.4m, V |
1.16 - 1.24 |
0.59 |
| 2010_11_23, 0.4m, V |
1.13 - 1.44 |
0.86 |
| 2010_11_25, 0.4m, V |
1.08 - 1.23 |
2.36 |
| 2010_12_08, 0.4m, V |
1.25 - 1.80 |
0.52 |
| 2010_12_08, 0.25m, V |
1.04 - 1.15 |
0.18 |
| 0.40m Measured CCD Zero Point Magnitudes |
| filter |
zero point |
| U |
[currently unknown - not enough data for calculation] |
| B |
20.70 |
| V |
21.34 |
| R |
[currently unknown - not enough data for calculation] |
| I |
[currently unknown - not enough data for calculation] |
| 0.40m Autoguider Finder Optical Specifications |
| aperture |
80mm |
| focal length |
670mm |
| focal ratio |
f/8.4 |
| Starlight Xpress Lodestar CCD field of view |
33 arcmin x 24 arcmin |
| Starlight Xpress Lodestar CCD plate scale |
2.6 arcsec/pixel x 2.5 arcsec/pixel (binned 1x1)
5.2 arcsec/pixel x 5.0 arcsec/pixel (binned 2x2) |
|
