The VI CCD photometry is made for stars in the globular cluster M22 down to V ≈ 19m, I ≈ 18m. In the color-magnitude diagram (CMD), red giant branch (RGB), asymtotic giant branch (AGB) and blue horizontal branch (BHB) are well defined. The luminosity functions (LF) of RGB, AGB and BHB stars are derived, discussing deficient gaps and bumps in the CMD. The anomalously wide RGB seen in the BV photometric system is found to disappear in the VI photometric system.

We present UBV CCD photometry of Be 2, previously unstudied open cluster. Our photometry covers a field of 3'.2×3'.8 of the sky centered on the cluster, which is slightly smaller than the cluster diameter estimated to be about 260". We have determined the reddening, distance, age and metallicity of the cluster by fitting the Pad ova isochrones to the observed stellar distributions in color-magnitude diagram as well as main sequence fitting: E(B-V)=0.8±0.05, (m-M)o=13.6±0.1, log(t) =8.9±0.1, and Z=0.008. The present photometry shows that Be 2 is a distant open cluster of intermediate age. that it is a distant intermediate-age open duster.

The wide field (~20'×20') CCD photometry has been performed for more than 4,000 stars over a whole region of NGC 362 which is located inside the SMC halo. The Color-Magnitude diagram (CMD) and luminosit function (LF) for red giant branch (RGB) stars are presented, discussing a distinct bump along the RGB and some blue stars appearing in the blue horizontal branch (BHB) and above BHB. The anomalous globular cluster NGC 362 with highly populated red horizontal branch (RHB) stars is compared with the another anomalous globular cluster NGC 288 with highly populated BHB stars. A metal-rich, young blue component and metal-'poor, old red component of the SMC halo stars are examined.

We have developed and tested a CCD camera (100 × 100 pixels) system for observing Ha images of the solar flares with time resolution> 25 msec. The 512 × 512 pixels image of CCD camera at 2 Mpixels/sec can be recorded at the rate of more than 5 frame/sec while 100 × 100 pixels area image can be obtained 40 frames/sec. The 100 × 100 pixels image of CCD camera corresponds to 130 × 130 arc - sec2 of the solar disk.

The CCDs are widely used in astronomical observations either in direct imaging use or spectroscopic mode. However, the areas of available sensors are too small for large imaging format. One possibility to obtain large detection area is to assemble mosaics of CCD, and drive them simultaneously. Parallel driving of many CCDs together rules out the possibility of individual tuning; however, such optimisation is very important, when the ultimate low light level performance is required, particularly for new, or mixed devices. In this work, a new concept is explored for an entirely novel approach, where the drive waveforms are multiplexed and interleaved. This simultaneously reduces the number of leadout connections and permits individual optimisation efficiently. The digital controller can be designed within a single EPLD (Erasable Programmable Logic Device) chip produced by a CAD software package, where most of the digital controller circuits are integrated. This method can minimise the component. count., and improve the system efficiency greatly, based on earlier works by Han et a1. (1996, 1994). The system software has an open architecture to permit convenient modification by the user, to fit their specific purposes. Some variable system control parameters can be selected by a user with a wider range of choice. The digital controller design concept allows great flexibility of system parameters by the software, specifically for the compatibility to deal with any number of mixed CCDs, and in any format, within the practical limit.

The principles to attain improved accuracy in a new controller for large CCD and mosaics detectors with the application of 16- and 32-bit DSP are presented.

A wide-field CCD detector for solar eclipse observations is discussed. The CCD is supposed to be of a moderate size, and the image of the corona is obtained by scanning the field of view. Results of the 1995 solar eclipse observation are shown which have been made with a prototype of the scanning CCD detector.

A new CCD camera equipped with a large format chip is now under construction for the Kiso 105-cm Schmidt telescope. We use SITe TK2048E, of which pixel size is 24 μm and chip size is 48 mm square. TK2048E is thinned back-illuminated so that it has high sensitivity in U-band. The chip is cooled by a refrigerator instead of liquid nitrogen. MESSIA III is used as CCD control system.

An outline is given of our development of mosaic CCD cameras. Hardware and data reduction software of two operational cameras are described. Scientific objectives of wide-field imaging with the cameras are briefly described.

We present the Programme of Monitoring of Flare Stars in the Orion aggregate by. CCD based. Photometer mounted at the Newtonian focus of 70/98/210-cm meniscus telescope through glass imaging quality C1 filter (3900Å/800Å) with a time resolution of 0.5-1.0 min.

The development of universal CCD camera control software for all BOAO CCD camera systems is proposed. The new software, running under Sun SPARCstation and motif based X window system with SunOS 4.1.3 operating system, replaces existing control software based on NeXTstation color and NeXTstep 2.1 operating system which is no more produced now. Several new features of the new software is introduced, some of which are 1) the image contrast is enhanced by color manipulation and display, 2) image zooming and trimming, 3) any size of image can be displayed in the scrolled window, and 4) the offset between telescope pointing position and CCD center is easily calculated by alt-azi map. Along with the above new features, the new software has advantages including ease of maintenance and upgrading and elimination of risk caused by hardware damage. Since September 1, the software beta version is being used by observers and there is not seen severe problem regarding the software itself, but several requests to equip more features to the software will be mirrored to future release.

We have estimated a metal abundance of [Fe/H]= -0.48 ± 0.14 dex, a reddening of E(B- V)= 0.30 mag, an age of 2.0 ± 0.4 Gyr, and a distance of 7.9 ± 0.8 kpc for Tombaugh 2 using the Washington filter system.

We have estimated a metal abundance of [Fe/H]= -0.04 ± 0.05 dex, a reddening of E(B- V)= 0.28 mag, an age of 1.1 ± 0.1 Gyr, and a distance of 2.5 ± 0.2 kpc for NGC 1245 using the Washington filter system.