Belgrade Initiative for Space Science, Instrumentation and Modelling in Astrophysics - Belissima

NEWS FROM VIDOJEVICA: BEGINNING OF OPERATION OF THE 60cm TELESCOPE

In April and May 2011 numerous preparations have been done related to the beginning of operation of the 60cm telescope on the Mt. Vidojevica near Prokuplje. This telescope was bought using the funds of the Astronomical Observatory of Belgrade (AOB) provided by the Ministry of Science and Technological development of the Republic of Serbia (presently Ministry of Education and Science). This telescope is a precursor of the planned telescope “Milanković” which will be mounted in its vicinity. Observations which the 60cm telescope will provide will enable the participants of the BELISSIMA project to choose the best configuration of the “Milanković” telescope.

Several months after the mounting of the telescope which happened in October 2010, on April 8th 2011, it was finally put into operation: on that day, for the purpose of calibration of the telescope, Mr. Phillipp Keller (the constructor of the telescope) and Mr. Miroslav Taubenberger, the constructor of the mounting from ASA (Astr System Austria) company came to Vidojevica. On behalf of AOB the guests were welcomed at the Niš airport “Constantin the Great” by Dr. Zoran Knežević, director of AOB and Dr. Milan Bogosavljević, technical director of the Vidojevica station. The guests arrived with the private plane belonging to the owner of the ASA company. A day earlier a team for AOB had arrived to Vidojevica: Dr. Oliver Vince,  scientific associate of AOB, Ms. Milena Jovanović, research apprentice of AOB and PhD student, and Mr. Dragan Radmilović, the head of the Association of astronomers amateurs of Serbia.

In the twilight of April, 8th the calibration of the telescope started. which was supposed to last several hours due to very slow rotation of the cupola. The calibration of the telescope was done by using 20 stars where each one was on the opposite side  to another. At 03:10 the telescope was pointed to Saturn: the quality was excellent and the planet was seen extremely good with a magnification of 600. On the first night several Messier objects was observed (M4, M104, M51, M27, M13 etc). All observers, most with a significant observational experience, very satisfied.

This is a Ritchey-Chrétien telescope with a primary mirror of 60 cm and a secondary mirror of 20 cm. The telescope has a possibility to reduce its focal length from 600 cm (f=10) to 300 cm (f=5) by using a reducer. The positioning of the telescope is done by using programs Autoslew and Sky 6. The communication between the telescope and the computer is done by using ASCOM driver. On the next day, on Saturday, April 9th, the training was organized and it was aimed at operating the telescope. Unfortunately, because of unannounced interruption of the power supply it was of smaller intensity than planned. Later in the afternoon of April 9th a larger team of researchers from AOB arrived at Vidojevica: Dr. Zorica Cvetković, senior scientific associate of AOB,  Ms. Jelena Kovačević, research apprentice of AOB and PhD student, Mr. Marko Stalevski, research apprentice of AOB and PhD student, and Ms. Monika Jurković, research apprentice of AOB and PhD student. Their task was to make test images using CCD cameras owned by AOB. Unfortunately, because of the repeated interruption of power supply the test exposures could not have been performed. However, it was established that for mounting the cameras on the telescope it was necessary to provide appropriate adapters. Because of these problems, the Newton 200/1000 telescope owned by Mr. Dragan Radmilović was used: by using

this instrument the search for various celestial objects was trained taking the advantage of excellent visibility at the Mt. Vidojevica.

From April 18-20th, several observers came to Vidojevica to test the camera: Dr. Oliver Vince, Dr. Milan Bogosavljević, Mr. Nemanja Martinović,  research apprentice of AOB and PhD student, Mr. Milan Stojanović,  research apprentice of AOB and PhD student, and Mr. Dragan Radmilović. The first night because of the poor weather conditions was not suitable for the observing and taking images and therefore only the training related to mounting of the cameras and the work with the telescope were performed. In the office of the main building the cameras and the computer to which there were attached were tested. However, after several attempts and various adjustments of drivers they could not be started.

At the beginning of this month, from May, 4-6th, a team from AOB  with the equipment came to Vidojevica: Dr. Oliver Vince, Dr. Milan Bogosavljević, Mr. Nemanja Martinović, Ms. Monika Jurković, Ms. Milena Jovanović and Mr. Dragan Radmilović. On that occasion first exposures using the CCD camera SBIG 10 were taken. That was the opportunity to train the establishing of the focus, expositions needed and other necessary observational activities. The images made during the first two nights were of satisfactory quality (see the images of spiral galaxies M51 and M66).

The next visit will be used to test the possibilities of the instruments when the images of distant objects with large magnitudes are taken. The limiting values of the separation of binary stars as well as possibilities of photometric and spectroscopic observations  will be studied.

Several Web pages related to the observations from the Mt. Vidojevica are now in preparation and after intensive testing will be available to users.