The CofC 24in Telescope
​
The CofC Observatory is now home to one of the most powerful telescopes in South Carolina. Our telescope is a PlaneWave Instruments CDK (Corrected Dall-Kirkham) 24in telescope with a Mathis Instruments MI1250 fork on a M1000 mount. It was installed at the College of Charleston observatory on August 25, 2018. The current fork mount can mitigate building vibrations that severely impacted effectiveness of our previous 16inch DFM telescope in the existing location.
CofC faculty and students are able to capture spectacular high-resolution images of galaxies and nebulae, thanks to the telescope’s astrographic design (F ratio = 6.5), which provides excellent imaging with a large format charge-coupled device (CCD) camera, while remaining superb for visual use. It far exceeds the performance of most commercial telescope designs.
​
Instrumentation​
​
-
An Apogee Aspen CG16M CCD camera (4096 x 4096) (9 micron pixels, 0.47 arcsec/pix, FOV ~ 32’x32’)
​
-
A filter wheel with the following filters: Astrodon Luminance, Red, Green, Blue, Ha, OIII, Johnson-Cousins R, V, B, and Star Analyzer 200 transmission grating
​
-
A Perseus Instrument selector (allows for up to 4 different instruments attached to the telescope. An internal mirror can send the light to any of the four instruments attached)
​
-
An integrated Rotating Focuser.
​
Manuals
​
Observing manual for CofC 24in CDK
​
​
24in CDK Optical Tube Assembly
​
​
​
​
