Lulin Observatory
The Lulin Observatory ( 鹿 林 天文台 ) is an observatory operated by the Institute for Astronomy of the Central National University (NCU) with its headquarters in Taoyuan .
It is located at the top of Lulinqianshan ( 鹿 林 前 山 - "Lulin foothill") at an altitude of 2,862 meters on the border of the communities of Xinyi ( Nantou district ) and Alishan ( Chiayi district ), just under 8 kilometers as the crow flies from the summit of Yushan , des Taiwan's highest mountain, away.
Comet C / 2007 N3 (Lulin) was discovered there on July 11, 2007 .
Building history and purpose
The site was selected as part of a project funded by the National Science Council of Taiwan from 1989 to 1992. The 24-inch telescope operated on the NCU campus was to be relocated to a more suitable location. For this purpose, weather station data and infrared satellite images of Taiwan were systematically evaluated. Eight locations were shortlisted. CCD cameras were installed at potential locations that took pictures at regular intervals over a period of three years. The decision was made for the Lulinqianshan . The main criteria were the visibility, but also the accessibility of the location. The observatory was put into operation on January 16, 1999 after eight years of construction. The unobstructed night vision averaged 1.39 arc seconds with about 200 clear nights per year. The sky brightness was 20.72 Mag / arcsec² in the V-band and 21.22 Mag / arcsec² in the B-band .
The Lulin Observatory is used for research and training purposes. A 76 cm so-called super-light telescope constructed on the NCU and 4 robot-operated telescopes are used primarily to observe objects in the Kuiper belt . The latter are used as part of the Taiwanese-American Occultation Survey (TAOS), which aims to record comets in the outer solar system.
Telescopes
- LOT Cassegrain ( aperture 1 m)
- SLT (aperture 76 cm) now RCC (aperture 41 cm)
- Four TAOS robotic telescopes (50 cm aperture, f / 1.9)
Projects
- Taiwan-America Occultation Survey (TAOS)
- Lulin Emission Line Imaging Survey (LELIS)
- Lulin Sky Survey (LUSS)
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Tsay, W.-S., Chen, AB-C., Chang, K.-H., Li, H.-H .: The NCU Lu-Lin Observatory . In: Bohdan Paczynski, Wen-Ping Chen, Claudia Lemme (Eds.): Small Telescope Astronomy on Global Scales, ASP Conference Series . 246, IAU Colloquium 183. Astronomical Society of the Pacific, San Francisco 2001, ISBN 1-58381-084-6 , pp. 299–304 , bibcode : 2001ASPC..246..299T (English).