Telescope & Instrumentation

The Weizmann Institute of Science’s Martin S. Kraar Observatory is a cutting-edge installation. Remote operation implies that instead of the traditional eyepiece mounted on the telescope, a digital CCD camera is used to capture and store images, later used for science and education.

Hardware

  • Observatory telescopeThe observatory’s main telescope is a Meade 16” (41 cm) aperture, LX200 ACF Schmidt-Cassegrain design. Its f/10 focal ratio is reduced to f/7 using an Optec, Inc. focal reducer.
  • The telescope is equipped with a 1530×1020 pixels, 9 micron SBIG ST-8XME CCD camera, yielding a 16.6×11.1 minutes of arc field of view at f/7.
  • A set of science-grade filters, the Johnson-Cousins BVRI band filters manufactured by Custom Scientific, Inc., reside in a filter wheel attached to the primary camera.
  • The telescope resides on a Software Bisque Paramount ME mount, the only one of its kind in Israel.
  • The observatory is housed in a 4.2 meter diameter dome made by Ash-Dome. The dome is fully automatic and is enslaved to the telescope rotation.
  • A secondary telescope, a William Optics ZenithStar 70 ED equipped with its dedicated CCD camera, serves for guiding during long duration exposures.
  • A sensitive focuser, the Optec, Inc. TCF-S3 model, is a temperature compensating focuser and is used digitally to achieve good focus night-to-night.
  • An additional camera, the Grasshopper II from Point Grey Research, is available for fast acquisition of imagery in a video rate mode.
  • The observatory is also equipped with the Shelyak Instruments Lhires III spectograph, with gratings of 2,400 and 150 lines per mm, providing a spectral dispersion resolution (H-Alpha) of 0.0115 and 0.300 nm/pixel in red, respectively.
  • A custom test-bed platform for scientific equipment experimentation.

Software

All the equipment is connected to the main observatory computer, which is used for telescope, dome and CCD camera control.

  • The software is based on the ASCOM platform, which serves as a unified bus for the various hardware equipment drivers.
  • The Paramount ME is controlled by the Software Bisque TheSky 6 software suit.
  • The CCD camera, focuser and dome are controlled by Diffraction Limited MaxIm DL software. Data acquisition is also done through this software package.

Auxiliary Equipment

  • A dedicated, solid-state weather station tracks weather condition throughout the night. A cloud sensor can issue a warning for the user in case visibility during the night deteriorates.
  • The observatory environment, such as dome lighting, air-conditioning system, etc., can all be activated remotely by computer control.
  • Finally, a low-light surveillance video camera provides safety measures. It is being used when remotely slewing the telescope in order to make sure that no cables are being tangled, or for remotely detecting other dangers to the safety of the equipment.