A short description of technical features
| 20" RC telescope |
 Specification of OpticsMechanical Specifications Electrical Specifications |
Description:
Dimensions of primary mirror: weight= 40kg, mechanical diameter=52cm, thickness=8cm, mirror-hole diameter=15cm, material=Astrositall. Dimensions of secondary mirror: diameter=19cm, thickness=3cm. Mirror spacing between primary and secondary-mirror = 100.3cm. Back focus behind primary mirror surface = 32cm. Field of view diameter without vignetting = 8cm.
Design of the mechanics: APTM the "Austrian Precision Telescope Mount" by Ing. Rudolf Pressberger in its latest version 1995, 1996. A professional steel fork-mount construction. The first version of APTM was developed until 1978 by Mr. Pressberger. He was worldwide the first amateur astronomer who built his own 1m-RC telescope singlehanded. He developed his own methods for grinding and testing the optical mirror surfaces too. Have a look for his superlative observatory named "Purgathofer Sternwarte" here (see also the german Wikipedia). The design was published in 1986 in the austrian journal "Sternbote". Rudolf Pressberger died in the year 2001.
In the latest version of APTM (1995, 1996) we have friction wheel drive with selfmade special bearings in both axes, only designed for aequatorial teleskope mounts. The whole telescope is easy to built if you are able to weld sheet metal. Up to 10 observatory-telescopes was buildt in Austria, using the design of Pressberger. Today (2010) further one are under construction.
The yearly maintenance of the telescope is very easy: Washing the mirrors, adjusting the gears (summer/winter adjustment) and wipe off the friction wheels with special oil.
Conclusion: "you can't find a better design for do-it-yourself observatory-telescopes"
The computer controlled drive was developed by Dr. Manfred Stoll under DOS. It allows modelling all the 6 static mounting errors and one flexure term (similar tpoint) since 1978 (in it's first version for the professional 1.5m Zeiss-RC at Leopold Figl observatory / university of vienna) still before tpoint was available. Mr. Stoll has updated his software (9 versions) till 2000. The 1m-RC of Purgathofer observatory works with version 9. With our own new version 10 (client/server-architecture) we are able to guide the ISS and other satellites. Exchange of data with Guide8 and similar software now. The client is a selfmade Windows-GUI with the capability of a supervisory and control system of the whole observatory, including remote operation. It works intentional without ascom.
| C14 |
 Specification of Optics Mechanical Specification |
Description:
The mirror shifting of the main mirror is a well-known problem.
The German-type mount allows using of different optical tubes and so it is a completion of our main instrument. Note also our roll-roof observatory.
| 4" Fluorite APO Refractor |
 Specifications |
| Other Astronomical Instruments |
 classical C8 in orange-outfit (20cm SC-telescope, 1983) for transportable use only, adapted with 4-steps mechanical focus-counter. Look the image nearby for size comparison to our main instrument. |
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 A little 1 inch parabolic mirror with focal lenght of 3m is used as "Schiefspiegler". Projection of the Sun at a piece of paper. |
| Meteor camera |
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| cooling-camera |
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One-stage peltier-cooling with secondary water-circuit instead of the dry-ice chamber of orginal Kochic-design.The cooling-current is about 15A at minimum film temperature of -30 degree Celsius. The inner film-chamber can be filled with dry Inertgas. No cutting of the film necessary.
| first CCD Camera |
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With redesigned housing we also can use lenses with CMount or Nikon-bajonet. The shutter and shutter-electronics are selfmade. Shutter-electronics are able to drive a filter-wheel too. Connected to computer with ISA-slot.
No usage today, because of software is running under DOS only.
| second CCD Camera |
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This scientific CCD-camera normaly used in physical and biological laboratories. The amateur astonomers know less about this camera type. Therfore it is not able to control this camera with amateur-like astronomical image-processing software, like astroart, maxim-dl and others. The software including is designed for spectographs and microscopic use and less for astonomical equipment, but with a remarkable user-development documentation, you are able to write a user Plug-in.
Now, our own software is optimised for astronomical use. It convertes all images to FITS-format. In future we are able to drive filter-wheels computer-controlled with build-in digital IO of the camera.
Orginally the camera is equipped with Nikon-Bajonet and a 35mm shutter, less for long focus range. For that reason you have vignetting in image-edges, you need a larger shutter. Using our selfmade dry-box you get no ice-crystals at front window of the high evacuated CCD-package.
The excellent technical specifications are the reason for our decision to this type of camera. Professional astronomers at Konkoly observatory (Hungary), at Rhozen Observatory (Bulgaria) or at Lulin observatory (Taiwan) also used this camera with bigger telescopes (links see german version).
| third CCD Kamera |
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The camera needs USB-Port only. Coming with exemplary software. For astronomical use we apply IRIS freeware. Only usable for bright objects as Sun, Moon and Planets, not for deep-sky work. Don't make electrical modifications, it is not worth while.
| Mintron and Watec |
| Two little CCD-videocams (black and white) without cooling, the well known types MINTRON MTV12V1-EX and WATEC 120N. Additional feature of the cams is hardware-summing of single frames. Exposuretime up to 2.5 seconds (Mintron) or 10 Seconds (Watec) are possible. |
The Mintron comes with auto-exposure feature, perfect for use with a very small robotic telescope. Such a telescpoe with fast optic is under construction now. The Watec + focal reductor lens is usefull as electronic eyepiece, special use with H-alpha-filter to visualize bright nebulae and presentation of sky objects with video beamer. A pinnacle video frame grabber with USB interface is used for connecting to PC.
| laser collimator |
 We are able to collimate our RC-optic exactly under daylight condition.
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In contrast to commercial instruments, you are able to minimize tilt-error and shift-error of both mirrors. Applicable to any kind of Cassegrain-system. Needs no fine-adjustment with night-sky star.
| Sun Protuberances viewer |
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Not usable, malfunction of H-alpha-filter because of over age after 7 years.
| Weather-Satellite receiver |
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Includes a 23-elements YAGI-antenna and a receiver-box, like videosatellite equipment. Output of videosignal conectable to TV-monitor. Usable for cloud forcastig.
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