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Facilities
A 10-foot diameter ProDome is housing a large 10-inch LX200 Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope for the moon and night sky viewing.
A fully-equipped classroom with all the tools needed for you and your students to interact and to learn.
Equipment
Meade LX200 10-inch f/6 Schmidt-Cassegrain Telescope was chosen as CAC's main instrument. Heavy-duty fork mount, 9-speed dual axis drive permits observatory-level precision in tracking, guiding and slewing. Built-in 64,359 object computer library with automatic "goto" function allows efficient viewing opportunities. Pick a celestial object and system centers the object automatically. |
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Meade ETX-90EC Maksutov-Cassegrain Telescope was chosen as the second telescope for CAC's astronomy efforts due to its longer focal length. Primarily this allows planetary views while her 10-inch big brother concentrates on wide-field, deep-sky viewing and images. |
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In the optical design of ETX-90EC shown above, light enters from the right through a multi-coated meniscus lens, proceeds to an f/2.2 primary mirror, and then to a convex secondary mirror that multiplies effective focal length by a factor of 6.3. The secondary mirror light baffle, in combination with the antireflection threads inside the primary mirror baffle, produces extremely high contrast astronomical images at the focal plane. |
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The Meade 416XTE CCD camera was chosen for imaging with the LX200 above. It boasts more than four times the pixel quantity, more than twice the pixel density and about one tenth the dark current of other similar units. Designed to interface easily with the LX200, the use of the camera is readily mastered by students.
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This is the Astrovid 2000 Astronomical CCD Video system, which is similar to the one present in the CAC dome. It allows for Lunar, Solar, Planetary, and Meteor videoing. Filters can be used with the camera to see different aspects of our Solar System. This CCD video camera was obtained following the acquisition of the regular CCD camera and allowed us to view different objects on a small screen adjacent to the scope in the dome. Also, with this apparatus, it allows for frame-by-frame still photography for observing the night sky for many hours at a time. |
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With this Coronado Solar Max Scope, the Astronomy Club is able to view the sun is by isolating the Hydrogen-Alpha wavelength at 656.3nm and rejecting all other types of light. At this wavelength we are able to view all the features of the chromospheres, which originates just above the photosphere. These features include flares, prominence, filaments, spiculae, ficulae, and sunspots. As the sun is constantly changing, the view through this Coronado Scope is always exciting to observe. Whether you watch a sunspot group march across the surface or a prominence explode thousands of miles into space there will always be something unique to view. |
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