Elginfield Observatory
In 1969 the Elginfield Observatory was born. The 1.2-meter telescope was erected by Boller & Chivens 25 km north of the UWO campus, at longitude 5h 25m 16s west, latitude +43o 12.0' north. Funding came from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and from the province of Ontario. The project was spearheaded by W.H. Wehlau with assistance from J.M. Moorhead, G.S. Symonds, and me. Here are some construction shots.
The Ritchey-Chretien optics gives the telescope a 1.25 dgree field at the Cassegrain focus. The secondary mirror is figured on both sides, f/8.3 for the Cassegrain focus and f/30.5 for the coudé focus. Although the reflecting surface on the primay mirror is bare aluminum, all other mirrors are coated with enhanced silver that reach 98% reflectivity across most of the visible spectrum.
The coudé spectrograph is located at ground level. The resolving power (m/Dm) is high, about 100,000. Higher the resolving power lets us see more detail in the spectra.
Inside the coudé spectrograph. At the left is the 669 mm focal length Schmidt camera. On the right is the 2000 mm focal length camera. The collimator mirror is off to the right and the diffraction grating is hidden behind the Schmidt camera.
The Elginfield Observatory was closed at the end of 2010.
Here is an example of a high resolution spectrum.
