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24inch Telescope

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Overview

In the early 1960s, the Australian National University established a new astronomical site at Siding Spring in central New South Wales, partly in the expectation that it would provide somewhat clearer skies than those at Mount Stromlo, and partly to escape the increasing light pollution of the growing Canberra. The selection of Siding Spring followed an extensive site-testing programme organized by the then Director, Bart Bok. The new site was instrumented with three reflectors of modest size, all made by Boller & Chivens. The 24-inch is one of these, the other two being a 40-inch and a 16-inch. Usage of the 24-inch has varied over the years. At one stage it undertook some major polatization projects. It is currently instrumented for photometry and imaging work.

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Specifications

• 24inch (0.6m), f/18 Cassegrain
• German Equatorial mount

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Instruments

• Photoelectric Photometry

  A pulse-counting GaAs tube is available with PC controlled software for automatic programmed filter changing. UBVRI and uvby Hbeta filters are available. The cold box is Peltier cooled.
  
  

• CCD Imaging

  There are no dedicated CCD and controller for the 24 inch, and their availability is dependent on what is being used at the 40inch and 2.3m telescopes. A thinned 1Kx1K Site CCD, or a EEV 2Kx1K thick CCD could be available.