We developed a CCD camera that can observe wide fields on the sky. We tested the field of views using various lenses. For cooling the CCD chip, we used a thermoelectric cooling device and tested the cooling efficiency. This camera will continuously observe a part of the sky. The data from the camera will be used to decide the current weather condition by the real-time star counting program (SCount) which will be developed later.
The purposes of spectroscopy in astronomy are to measure the radiation flux of the spectroscopic emission or absorption line and to measure the dynamical parameters of the line profile. In order to use an appropriate instrument for the scientific purpose, we need to understand the characteristics of various spectrometers, e.g., a prism spectrometer, a grating spectrometer, and a Fabry-Perot spectrometer (FPS), which are being used in ultra-violet, optical, and infrared bands. The FabryPerot spectrometer is not very popular compared to the grating spectrometer, because of its complex and tricky operations. The Fabry-Perot spectrometer, however, can get a two-dimensional image at one exposure, so we can study radiation mechanisms and dynamical properties of extended sources, e.g., clusters, nebula, and galaxies.
We have improved the control and driving system of 16' reflector at Kwanak Observatory at Seoul National University, by completing encoder unit, and by developing programs for correction of errors resulting from hardware defects. The hardware defects of this telescope system are the large backlash and the nonuniform tracking and pointing. The telescope pointing accuracy for RA is improved to a few arc minutes, and that for DEC is several tens of arc minutes. The guiding error is improved to 0.7 arcsec/minute, allowing up to 3 minutes exposure for CCD imaging under typical seeing conditions at the Observatory.