Pointing Limits
Hour Angle
Telescope motion will cease if you try to go beyond
East: -5h 29m 29s
West: 5h 13m 52s
Declination
Declination limits vary by instrument.
| Instrument | South Limit | North Limit |
|---|---|---|
| Direct Imaging Camera | -31:11:10 | 66:45:00 |
| Spectrograph | -20:12:00 | 66:30:00 |
Elevation
Elevation limits for the Nickel telescope vary by direction.
| Direction | Elevation (degrees) |
|---|---|
| NE | 19.5 |
| E | 20.5 |
| SE | 21.5 |
| SW | 18.9 |
| W | 18.8 |
| NW | 18.8 |
Zenith Warning
Whenever the zenith distance is less than 6.9 degrees, the telescope will be partially occulted by the dome.
Limit Overrides
On rare occasions permission may be granted to observers at the Nickel who wish to by-pass the standard telescope limits to observe a special target. We emphasize that this is an extraordinary exception that is not approved without serious consideration. Users must contact the Associate Director via electronic mail for advance approval.
Each target will be approved separately and only for a given night. The observations may *not* be performed remotely. Only an experienced, on-mountain observer may qualify. The by-pass may only be exceeded for up to 2 hours of clock time.
Support Astronomers, sa@ucolick.org Last modified: Wed Aug 1 00:05:19 PDT 2012