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1.3 m Warsaw University Telescope Las Campanas Observatory, Chile

Telescope technical data:

  • 1.3m (51'') primary mirror diameter
  • 1:9.2 (1:2.8 primary) Ritchey-Chretién system; 17.4 arcsec/mm focal scale
  • 3-element field corrector - 1.5° diffraction limited field (80% of light within 0.5 arcsec diameter)
  • Ultra Low Expansion (ULE) glass mirrors
  • Fully automated, computer controlled operation
  • Fork, parallactic mount, friction drives (no backlash) allowing any tracking rate in RA and DEC
  • Light, steel enclosure with Ash-dome dome, easy ventilation (louvers on telescope and ground level). Minimalization of heat sources in the telescope building
  • Remote control of the telescope and instruments from "control building" located 15 m away from the telescope building. Possibility of remote control over the Internet
  • First "optical" light Feb 9, 1996, first "electronic" light Jul 18, 1996

Dome

Control building (left) and the dome

Telescope and instruments

The telescope and its instruments

CCD Camera

  • Single chip camera (OGLE-II, 1997-2001)
    • SITe 2048×2049 thin chip
    • 90% QE over wide range from B to I, also some sensitivity in U
    • 0.4 arcsec/pixel scale
    • 5 e- readout noise at 3.8 e-/ADU (16-bit ADC: 65535 levels)
    • modular control system developed at Warsaw University Observatory - easily expandable to multi-chip mosaic, next generation cameras
  • "Second generation" mosaic camera (OGLE-III, 2001-2009)
    • eight thin SITe 2048×4096 CCD chips (total of 8192×8192 pixels)
    • 0.26 arcsec/pixel scale, 35'×35' total field of view
    • 6-9 e- readout noise (depending on chip) at 1.3 e-/ADU gain
    • 98 seconds readout time
  • "Third generation" mosaic camera (OGLE-IV, 2009-...)
    • 32 thin E2V44-82 2048×4096 CCD chips
    • 0.26 arcsec/pixel scale, 1.4 square degrees total field of view
    • 4.5-6.5 e- readout noise (depending on chip) at 1.0 e-/ADU gain
    • 20 seconds readout time
    • Mosaic configuration details

Auto-Guiding System and Filter Wheel (OGLE-II and OGLE-III)

  • 512×512 pixels EEV CCD37 detector driven by the same electronics as scientific CCD (2.2 by 2.2 arcmin field)
  • Automatic positioning of the guider probe with accuracy of 2 pixels over the entire field of view
  • Automatically positioned filter wheel with 7 slots for up to 16 cm diameter filters. Standard UBVRI filters installed

Auto-Guiding System and Filter Holder (OGLE-IV)

  • Automatically positioned filter holder with two slots for 31 cm × 31 cm size filters. Standard VI interferometric filters installed

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