Jacobus kapteyn telescopes
Harlow shapley.
General Information
Jacobus kapteyn telescopes
It is equatorially mounted, on a cross-axis mount, which allows operation east or west of the pier. Normally it is east of the pier. There is a choice of two secondary mirrors. The f/8.06 Harmer-Wynne system uses a spherical secondary and a doublet corrector to give a field of 90 arcmin diameter for photographic astrometry over a wide field.
The other secondary is a hyperboloid, which gives a conventional f/15 Cassegrain focus.
Jacobus kapteyn telescopes for sale
The JKT normally operates in f/15 mode.
The optical telescope assembly weighs 13,615 kg, and including the mounting (and no instruments) 39,915 kg.
In the early 1960s there was a flourishing school of photographic astrometry at the RGO.
It was found that very accurate proper motions could be determined by comparing plates taken 50 or more years apart with the same telescope. Too s