New Capabilities of One-Meter Schmidt Telescope of the Byurakan Astrophysical Observatory after Modernization

Within the framework of cooperation between Byurakan Astrophysical Observatory and Special Astrophysical Observatory during 2013–2015 y the 1-m Schmidt telescope of the Byurakan Astrophysical was upgraded. We completely redesigned the control system of the telescope: we replaced the actuating mechanisms, developed telescope control software, and made the guiding system. In the Special Astrophysical Observatory the 4k×4k Apogee (USA) liquid-cooled CCD was reworked and prepared. Detector was mounted in the focus of the telescope and provides 1 degree field of view with pixel-size of 0.868, and RON∼11e−. The detector is equipped with a turret with 5 holes for filters. The 20 intermediate-band filters (FWHM= 250A) uniformly covering the 4000–9000 AA wavelength range, five broadband filters (u, g, r, i, z SDSS), and three narrow-band filters. During the first year of test operation of the 1-m telescope we performed pilot observations within the framework of three programs: search for young stellar objects, AGN evolution, and stellar composition of galaxy disks. We confirmed the possibility of efficiently selecting of young objects using observations performed in narrow-band Hα and [S II]filters and the intermediate-band 7500̊Afilter.Three-hours long exposures with SDSS g, r, and i band filters allow us to reach the surface brightness level of 28m from square arcsecond when investigating the stellar content of galaxy disks for a sample of nine galaxies. We used observations performed with the 1-m telescope in five broadband (SDSS u, g, r, i, and z) and 15 intermediate-band filters (4000–7500A) to construct a sample of quasar candidates with 0.5更多