Sky & Telescope - December 2018 - 59

etary ﬁlters including L, R, G, B, UV, and
three bands of near-infrared wavelengths
(IR 642, IR 685, and IR 742). Additional
ﬁlters are expected to come online in the
near future, including methane (CH4)
and IR 1,000.
Due to the remote location of Chilescope, power is provided by a hybrid
solar and diesel generator with 70 solar
panels on the property, with diesel fuel
only being necessary when the Sun isn't
visible for a day or more, or in the event
of a total power disruption. Internet is
provided via a radio relay with speeds as
high as 30 megabytes per second.

M104: CHILESCOPE.CO M; TELESCOPE A ND CA MER AS:
DA MIA N PE ACH / CHILESCOPE (3)

Remote Operation
Deep-sky imaging with Chilescope operates like most other remote facilities.
Users set up an account and purchase
points at US $1 each, which can then
be spent on telescope time. Once an
account is established, you select the
instrument you intend to use and open
a scheduler, which shows what time
periods are open for purchase. Time on
the 20-inch astrographs costs 60 points
per hour, with a minimum purchase of
1 hour. There are discounted rates for
deep-sky imaging based on the phase of
the Moon. For example, while the period
around New Moon is 60 points per
hour, a 35% discount is offered when
booking time during waning or waxing crescent phases, and this increases
to a 75% discount as the Moon grows
full. Additionally, there are cumulative
discount rates for large block purchases
of telescope time for both planetary and
deep-sky imaging.
A video tutorial and PDF guides are
available on the Chilescope website
to help you familiarize yourself with
operations of the facilities for deep-sky
and planetary imaging, and I strongly
encourage you to go over them before
starting out.
Imagers using the facilities for
deep-sky imaging should plan out their
observing session thoroughly using the
planetarium software of their choice
that includes camera ﬁeld-of-view indicators. This avoids wasting valuable time
on framing your subjects, determining
what ﬁlters to image with, and so forth.

u The spiral galaxy M104
displays intricate smallscale detail in this 4-hour
cumulative exposure captured through the 1-meter
Chilescope.

You also need to make
sure your targets are
at least 30° above the
horizon at the start or
before the end of the
observing time you
book. All Chilescope
telescopes are limited to
observing objects that
are at least 30° up. Also,
the scopes will not allow you to book
imaging time when the Sun is less than
15° below the horizon.
The telescopes are operated for deepsky imaging using an online form where
you input your target coordinates, the
camera rotation, the ﬁlters and exposure times, autofocusing routine, and
autoguiding parameters. Once your
session is created, it will execute automatically at the designated time. You'll
receive an email with the session status
and a link to log on in real time if you

desire. After your data are ready, an
email with a link to your ﬁles, as well
as any neccessary calibration frames, is
provided for download.
Although I didn't use the facilities
for deep-sky imaging, rates as low as
US $15 per hour during full Moon are
a great value: While you won't be able
to do much broadband LRGB imaging
during full Moon, narrowband imaging,
particularly through a hydrogen-alpha
ﬁlter, is very appealing. Also, small,
bright targets such as planetary nebulae

q The premier instrument at Chilescope is a 1-meter f/8 Ritchey-Chrétien reflector with dualNasmyth focus on each side of its massive alt-azimuth mount. One side hosts a ZW Optical
ASI174MM-Cool high-speed CMOS camera for imaging the Moon and planets (below right), while
the other uses an FLI PL16803 CCD camera for deep-sky clients (bottom right).

sk yandtelescope.com * DECE MBE R 2 018

http://www.CHILESCOPE.COM http://www.skyandtelescope.com

Sky & Telescope - December 2018

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Sky & Telescope - December 2018