Acquisition of a CCD and Related Instrumentation for the Whitin Observatory, and Publication of Procedures for Retrofitting CCDs to Small Telescopes

PIs将在Wellesley学院的24英寸Boller & Chivens反射望远镜上安装一个半定制的导引采集模块（GAM），其中包括定制设计的减焦/场平坦器和滤光轮。该仪器将允许在轴上光束和4个径向仪器端口之间进行几乎瞬时的仪器选择；升级二次单元/焦点外壳，使其比当前设置更具可重复性和刚性；获得泰克1024x1024薄的背面照明CCD系统，将视场尺寸增加约2.5倍，量子效率增加约2.0倍；安装主动式和被动式穹顶通风装置以便更快地平衡穹顶结构的温度，以帮助最大限度地减少穹顶视觉的影响。最后，pi将为他们的工作站获得两个大硬盘驱动器，以便用更大的CCD处理更大的图像。因为这些问题并不是韦尔斯利独有的，所以pi计划将这个项目的结果发表在一篇详细、全面的关于在小型望远镜上改装ccd的评论文章中。由此产生的望远镜改进，将逐步提高韦尔斯利学院天文台的研究和教育能力。＊＊＊

ABSTRACT Hawkins, R. Lee AST-9413335 The PIs will install on the Wellesley College's 24-inch Boller & Chivens reflector telescope a semi-custom Guide- Acquire Module (GAM) that includes a custom-designed focal reducer/field flattener and filter wheel. This instrument will allow virtually instantaneous instrument selection between the on-axis beam and 4 radial instrument ports; to upgrade the secondary cell/focus housing so that it will be both more repeatable and rigid than the current set up; to acquire a Tektronix 1024x1024 thinned, back-side illuminated CCD system to increase the field size by factor of roughly 2.5 and the quantum efficiency by a factor of roughly 2.0; and to install active and passive dome ventilation in order to equilibrate the temperature of the dome structure more quickly, to help minimize the effects of dome seeing. Finally, the PIs will acquire two large hard disks drives for their workstation in order to deal with the larger images with the larger CCD. Because these problems are not unique to Wellesley, the PIs plan to publish the results of this project in detailed, comprehensive review article on retrofitting CCDs to small telescopes. The resulting telescope improvement, will gently enhance the research and educational capability of the Wellesley College Observatory. ***