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