AUS-2 is a Takahashi FSQ-106ED (106 mm) F3.6 telescope, situated in Heaven's Mirror Observatory, Australia. It is equipped with a set of Astrodon astrophotography filters and it is an excellent choice for wide field of view astrophotography of deep sky objects.
Pricing
- 75 credits per hour of utilisation
Telescope Specification
- Model: Takahashi FSQ-106ED
- Aperture: 106 mm
- Focal Length: 382 mm
- F-ratio: 3.6 (with 0.73x focal reducer)
- Mount: Paramount MX+
- Minimum elevation: 30 degrees
Camera Specification
- Model: FLI PL16083 (spec sheet)
- Pixel Size: 9 μm
- Pixel Array: 4096 x 4096
- Pixel Resolution: 4.74 arcsec/pixel
- Cooling: -25 degrees
- Field of View: 324 x 324 arcmin
- Filters: Astrodon LRGB 2GEN, Ha (3nm), SII (3nm), OIII (3nm); 50mm square
- Position angle: 269 degrees
- Allowed exposure times (in seconds): 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120, 180, 240, 300
- Automated calibration: Yes, the images will be provided fully calibrated in FITS format
- RBI correction enabled: Yes
Guiding
- Active guiding: Yes, external
- External scope: TBD
- Guiding camera: Starlight Xpress Ultrastar
Overheads
- Initial set up, including focusing and target centring: 6 min
- Image overhead (readout, download, plate solution):
- For binning 1: 45 sec
- Change filter: 15 sec
- Refocusing: 6 min
Calibration frames
- New sets of calibration frames are acquired every week
- Flat field frames for each filter are acquired using an Alnitak Flip-Flat Flat Fielder
- Darks are acquired for each allowed exposure time
Observatory
- Name: Heaven's Mirror Observatory
- Location: Yass, NSW 2582, Australia
- Coordinates: -34.8285 N,148.8413 W (Google maps)
- Elevation: 530 m
- Average seeing: 1.5'' - 2.0''
- MPC code: Q56