I thought I should start this process off by talking about the equipment that I will be using for this project.
I have been using the Global-Rent-A-Scope (GRAS) equipment for some years now, and have determined that the best telescope in their Australian operation for the project is GRAS-009. This is a 317mm (12.5”) Ritchey-Chrétien Cassegrain RCOS system with a focal length of 1950mm at f/6.3.
The camera attached to the telescope is an SBIG ST10 - Non Anti Blooming Gate (NABG), with a field of view of 24.1 x 16.8 arc minutes. The pixel array is 1530 x 1020, giving a resolution of 0.95 arc seconds/pixel.
This is the only pure science telescope in GRAS’s southern hemisphere fleet.
What’s next: Starting the calibration phase.