Search this site

700days since
School begins

Observatory

This year, participants in the PhD School in Madonna di Campiglio will have the unique opportunity to make simple observations using a small telescope.  The telescope, hosted in the hotel where the School takes place, has the following specifications
  • Telescope Officina Stellare Pro RC 400 ST (Ritchey-Chrétien, D=0.4m, f/8)
  • Camera CCD FLI ProLine Kodak KAF-1001E
  • Broad band filters: SDSS u, g, r, i, and z
  • Narrow band filter: H-alpha
The telescope can reach approximately magnitude 20 in the SDSS-r band with an exposure of 30 minutes.  The CCD pixel size is 1.6 arcsec, and the average seeing is approximately 3 arcsec.

Participants wishing to use the telescope are invited to write a short proposal, with the following details
  • A short abstract and scientific rationale
  • A target or list of targets (make sure the target is observable in June from Madonna di Campiglio!)
  • An estimate of the needed integration time in each of the requested filters
The proposal has to be submitted as a PDF file to the email address scuola.lucchin@gmail.com; the deadline for proposal submission is June 15th.  The submitted proposals will be evaluated by the local organizing committee.

Here are a few possible observations that can be carried out with the available instrumentation, provided just as example for possible proposals:
  • HR diagram of a globular cluster
  • Extra-solar planet transit occultation
  • Astrometry of an asteroid
Note that, unfortunately, the full moon is on June 26th; however, near the end of the week we will have the first half night without the moon.

M81 observed with the 16" telescope of the hotel (20 min. integration)