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Helmos Observatory Aristarchos Telescope (Aristarchos)
Identification
Hosting Legal Entity
Institute for Astronomy, Astrophysics, Space Applications & Remote Sensing (National Observatory Of Athens)
Address:
Vas. Pavlou & I. Metaxa, Institute of Astronomy, Astrophysics, Space Applications & Remote Sensing, Penteli, PO: GR-15 236 (Greece)
Location
Mount Helmos, Aristarchos Telescope (Greece)
Structure
Type Of RI
Single-sited
Coordinating Country
Greece
Status
Status
Current Status:
Operational since 2007
Scientific Description
The facilities at Helmos Observatory include the dome building, which hosts the telescope, the telescope control and guest house building, a dome housing the small telescope used for atmospheric monitoring, as well as the building that hosts the electrical power equipment and the supporting power generators.The Aristarchos telescope (Ritchey-Chretien design) was constructed by the German company Carl Zeiss GmbH. The field of view is about 10 arcmin in diameter at the sideport, and 1 degree diameter at the Cassegrain focus. The telescope can reach a limiting magnitude of V~24 in an hour of observation on a dark night, while the limiting magnitude for spectroscopy is about V~19 with the low resolution ATS spectrograph.

RI Keywords
Spectrograph, Astronomical telescope
Classifications
RI Category
Telescopes
Scientific Domain
Physics, Astronomy, Astrophysics and Mathematics
Services
Observation time

Observation time via a call for proposals made within the OPTICON Trans-National Access programme or directly to Helmos via proposal@astro.noa.gr adress. Please see http://helmos.astro.noa.gr/applying.html for more informations about the internal proposal system.

Equipment
Helmos Obervatory - "Aristarchos " 2.3m telescope

Helmos Observatory is situated on "Neraidorachi", a mountaintop of the Helmos mountain chain in the Peloponnese. The site is 2340 m above sea level, 220 km southwest of Athens, and is one of the darkest places in continental Europe. Helmos Observatory hosts the "Aristarchos" telescope, an optical telescope designed and manufactured by the german company Carl Zeiss GmbH. The main characteristic of this telescope is its 2.3 m mirror which, combined with the super-sensitive detectors that the telescope is equipped with and the good atmospheric conditions of the site, makes it a very valuable tool for observing astronomical objects, even very faint and very distant objects located in the outskirts of the Universe. More informations about this telescope and site can be found at http://helmos.astro.noa.gr/ .

Access
Access Type
Remote, Physical
Access Mode
Excellence Driven
Collaborations
Networks
OPTICON
Date of last update: 20/03/2018
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