The Brorfelde Schmidt Telescope

for Astronomy On-line

Welcome

This is the guide to observations with the Brorfelde Schmidt Telescope belonging to Astronomical Observatory at the University of Copenhagen.

The telescope is located in Denmark on the island of Zealand, about 60 kilometers west of Copenhagen - the capital of Denmark. The name of the observatory Brorfelde and there are several telescopes at this site.

General information

Geographical data: Brorfelde Observatory
Astronomical Observatory at the University of Copenhagen
Observator Gyldenkernes Vej 13
4340 Tølløse
Direct phone to telescope: (+45) 53 48 80 83 (or: 53 48 81 95)

Latitude: 55^o 37' 31" North

Longitude: 11^o 39' 59" East

Altitude: 90 metres

Geographical data:			Brorfelde Observatory Astronomical Observatory at the University of Copenhagen Observator Gyldenkernes Vej 13 4340 Tølløse Direct phone to telescope: (+45) 53 48 80 83 (or: 53 48 81 95)
Latitude:	55^o 37' 31" North
Longitude:	11^o 39' 59" East
Altitude:	90 metres

The telescope has a large CCD (1024x1024 pixels) and a large field of view (28'x28' - the size of the full moon). At present only imaging is possible - No spectra can be obtained. The exposure time is limited to 5 minutes due to the present tracking possibilities. On a 5 minute exposure in clear steady weather, it is possible to distinguish stars down to 18.^m5 (18.5 magnitudes) in the V filter.

Weather and capacity

The weather in Denmark is unfortunately not well suited for astronomical observations. We may expect one clear night in the period from November 18 to 22. Maybe two, if we are lucky! In case of clear weather, the observational period will be from 18:00 in the evening to 06:00 in the morning. These 12 hours can be used at an efficiency of about 50 percent. This means that approximately 60 exposures of 5 minutes each may be obtained during a full night.

Practical arrangements for the observations

The observations will be carried out by Karl Augustesen (visible in the picture above) and you may reach him by e-mail (kalle@astro.ku.dk), or directly by phone during the observation on the number listed above.

The images will become available about 5 to 10 minutes after the completion of each exposure. They may then be downloaded from this directory. The image format will be FITS and they will be compressed with gzip (which can be downloaded here for PC's (winzip for windows). Please search the net for gzip, if you have another computers or operating system.

For those of you who want more FACTS

Here are the detailed data for the Schmidt telescope and its instrumentation. We suggest that you pay particular attention to the section on the CCD camera, cf. the section on the Science CCD camera, where you also find data for filters etc.

Please send any comments about this page directly to the Astronomy On-Line Webmaster for Denmark - Lars Lindberg Christensen (lars_c@astro.ku.dk).