iTelescope - T24 - Deep Space - California


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Location Information


Observatory:  Sierra Remote Observatory at Auberry California USA - MPC U69

Telescope:  0.61-m f/6.5 reflector + CCD

Timezone:  UTC Minus -8:00. Daylight savings time is observed.

Minimum Target Elevation:  Approx 25 Degrees

 

37.07 North, 119.4 West. 

Elevation: 1405 Meters - 4610 Feet. 


Operational Notes


Deep Field. Hybrid Missions. Typically used for Photometry and Imaging. FITS and TIF file formats. Dark Frame calibration data is available for 60, 120, 180, 300, 600 and 900  second exposures. Binx1 - Binx2.  Recommended Maximum Exposure 600 seconds. Best results on Binx1.  Raw data can be found at data.itelescope.net.



  • T24 is the largest in the iTelescope network. Its big, its beautiful. Situated under sunny and clear Californian skies deep in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.
  • The Planewave Ascension 200HR mount is so accurate whilst tracking that iTelescope Admin have disabled active guidance for exposures under 300 seconds, with a corresponding decrease in session setup time when imaging. We recommend exposure of 300 seconds or less on this large system.
  • Note: We suggest the use of the "Dithering" option on T24 to help clean up any inherent CCD flaws in your post processing. It is common for some CCD chips to display column defects. Follow this link for more information.
  • Important: T24  and T31 use RBI flooding to flush the CCD wells of any residual data from the previous images.
  • If this is not done then ghost images of bright objects like stars can remain on the chip when another user selects a new target. They appear as faint ghost like images of stars or spots in the image. So we flush the CCD of any old data and clean the images for following users or different targets.
  • We MUST also produce MATCHING Darks calibration data that includes this RBI flush in order to produce acceptable images. This calibration data MUST match your exposure lengths of the image. Eg. 60, 120, 180, 300, 600 or 900 seconds.
  • So if your imaging sessions on T24 are for example using 150 second exposures then NO MATCHING CALIBRATION data will be able to be applied by the telescope server to automatically remove the RBI flush effect from your data. If you use our standard and recommended exposure times the RBI artifacts will not appear. You of course have the option of taking your own custom Dark Calibration during your session and applying this calibration yourself post session.


Instrument Package


CCD:  FLI-PL09000  CCD camera

QE: 68% Peak

Gain: 1.53

Full Well:  ~100,000e-  Anti Blooming Gate (ABG)

Dark Current:   ~0.1 e-/pixel/sec. @ -35ºC

Pixel Size:  12um Square

Resolution:  0.62 arc-secs/pixel

Sensor:  Frontlit 

Cooling:  Set to -35ºC default 

Array:  3056 by 3056 (9.3 Megapixels)  

FOV: 31.8 x 31.8 arc-mins

Filters:  Astrodon LRGB2-E50S.

              Astrodon HA3_50S, OIII3_50S, SII3_50S.

              Astrodon V, I   (V*-50S, Ic*-50S)

Position Angle: 90.7º

 

Telescope Optics


OTA: Planewave 24" (0.61m) CDK

Optical Design: Corrected Dall-Kirkham Astrograph

Aperture: 610mm

Focal Length: 3962 mm (155.9") 

F/Ratio: f/6.5

Guiding: External Guiding (300 Secs +) 

Mount: Planewave Ascension 200HR