CIRPASS test observations from Cambridge

We have attached the CIRPASS IFU to an 8 inch telescope in Cambridge to test instrument performance.

Setting up the telescope on Jan 15th 2002




The telescope is a 8-inch Celestron (black, at top). A magnifying lens near the back of the telescope projects the image of the sky on to the IFU which can be seen at the bottom of the setup. A 4.5 inch Meade reflector (white) fitted with a Star-light Xpress MX5 CCD provides acquisition and guiding. The equatorial mount is an ALTER D-6. The telescope is shown deployed on the road outside the CIRPASS lab.

Data has been obtained on the following nights:

24th Jan 2002      Operating the telescope from inside the lab looking out the window at the north celestial pole region.

15th Jan 2002      First night using the 8-inch Celestron

Nov 2001           Observations of Polaris using a 5.5mm aperture telescope


Andrew J Dean <ajd@ast.cam.ac.uk>
Ian Parry  <irp@ast.cam.ac.uk>


Last modified: Wed Jan 25 2002