Telescope
The training telescope of the AIRUB is a Schmidt-Cassegrain Telescope built by Meade. Its mirror has a diameter of 40cm (16") and a focal length of 4 meters. The telescope is attached to a classical LX 200 mount, a fork mount which implements right ascension and declination axes by exact alignment with the celestial north pole. The rotation of the earth can be corrected simply by moving the right ascension axis along with the correct velocity. This way any object will stay in the eyepiece or on the same position in the detector. The mount can be controlled with the manual controller or by a computer. The latter option allows for pointing the telescope precisely at any object, without knowing where it is on the sky.
A team of the institute (pictured here are Arpad Miskolczi and Anika Beer) regularly supervises (public) observing runs with the training telescope
The AIRUB telescope is primarily used to give students the opportunity to do real astronomy and to learn how to use such instruments. Furthermore, it is used in several lab courses and for experiments, where we attempt to detect transients, variable stars and exoplanets. Several times a year it is used for public observations.
PD Dr. Dominik Bomans acts as the "observatory manager".
