Rigel Acceptance Tests

Results of the June 2002 acceptance tests are now available.

Design Criteria

The Rigel robotic observatory system design was driven by six criteria:

1. The telescope, camera, and spectrometer must be capable of producing high quality images and spectra well suited to a wide variety of undergraduate astronomy laboratory education and research projects

2. The Observatory control software must be intelligent, robust, and intuitive. It must be easy to operate by non-technically trained users, with comprehensive safety features to prevent damage by inappropriate user input.

3. The Observatory enclosure must be capable of fail-safe, weather-tight closure in the event of power outage or severe weather

4. The Observatory and its enclosure must be easily sited on a variety of settings, with a minimum of site requirements: typically a small concrete pad, electricity, and Internet connectivity.

5. The Observatory control, image and spectral analysis, and curriculum software suite must be tightly integrated, extensible, and Web-based as much as possible to allow maximum

6. The design must achieve the design goals at the lowest possible total cost.

After considerable discussion of these design criteria with the telescope design group at Torus Precision Optics and the chief software engineer at Clear Sky Institute, as well as extensive experience with existing automated telescopes at the University of Iowa, we have designed a system that meets the above criteria. The complete system, called Rigel, can be produced in quantity at reasonable cost and with proven components and materials

Description

The Rigel robotic observatory consists of a 37 cm (14.5in) diameter f/14 Cassegrain reflector, equatorial mount, filter wheel, high QE cooled CCD imaging camera, CCD-based spectrometer, and fiberglass dome enclosure. All components are fully controlled by a single computer which can be operated using standard Ethernet and Internet protocols. This allows the Observatory to be located anywhere the user finds convenient, from the roof top of a local campus building to any remote site with adequate power and Internet connections.

A table of specifications for the Rigel system is given in the table below, followed by a table of performance specifications. Based on previous experience with the Automated Telescope Facility and the Iowa Robotic Telecope, these specifications are well matched to most observing projects in undergraduate astronomy laboratories.

Rigel Hardware Specifications

Rigel Performance Specifications

Design Drawings