Tic TAC: Mcdonald Observatory Telescopes and Instruments

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Tic TAC: McDonald Observatory Telescopes and Instruments http://mcdonaldobservatory.org/research/ Telescope Information Mirror Telescope Year Telescope Special Features and Uses Diameter Tube Completed With the Prime Focus Corrector and CCD it can image large 0.8 m 0.8 meter closed 1970 portions (about 3/4 degree) of the sky. open tube structure. Mirror Otto Struve 2.1 meters open 1938 weights 1900 kg. closed tube structure. Mirror weights 3540 kg. Harlan J. Smith 2.7 meters closed 1969 Coudé focus and high resolution spectrograph. third largest optical telescope in the world; specializes in Hobby-Eberly 11 meters open 1997 spectroscopy. Primary mirror made of 91 one-meter mirrors. Instrument Information Spectro- Image Special Use, Field of View, Instrument Telescope graph (yes/no) Sensitivity (yes/no) Medium spectral resolution with resolving power of 600-2,500 Cassegrain 2.1-m Struve yes no over the wavelength range from Spectrograph 0.3 to 1.1 micrometers. Spectral and spatial coverage. Finding extrasolar planets, Near Earth Asteroids, comets, and Prime Focus 0.8-meter no yes supernovae. Wide field of view Corrector camera (45 arc-minutes, bigger than the angular size of the moon) Wavelength range of 1 to 2.5 CoolSpec/RokCam 2.7-m Smith yes no micrometers; infrared Medium to very high spectral Coudé 2.7-m Smith yes no resolution depending upon which Spectrometer grating is used (7 available). Two observing modes to obtain low resolution spectra or 2.1-m Struve or IGI, IGP sometimes sometimes polarized light (polarimetry). 2.7-m Smith Focal reducer optics for wide field of view and bright images, Limiting magnitude of 23 and the Marcario Low field of view is 4 arc-minutes. Resolution HET yes no Has multi-slit object mode so that Spectrograph more than one object can be observed at once. Measures the intensity of light with a CCD in very short time Argos 2.1-m Struve no yes intervals. Narrow field of view (2.8 arc-seconds).

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