The Egyptain 1.88-m Telescope

Abstract

The Kottamia 1.88-m reflecting telescope in Egypt is the largest in the Middle East and North Africa. An extensive upgrading programe has been undertaken for this telescope to increase its efficiency. A new Zerodur optical system has been delivered by Carl Zeiss, Germany, and a new CCD system including an acquisition Camera Tek 1024 x 1024 pixels, with pixel size 24 x 24 micron and LN cooling, and an offset guiding camera Kodak 1080 x 1024 pixels with pixel size 16 xl6 micron and thermoelectric cooling. This CCD system has been attached to the Newtonian focus for direct imaging with scale 22.5 arcsec mm^-1. The aluminizing plant has also been refurbished by Balzer, the new pumping system can accommodate mirrors up to 2m. The unit is supplied with a microprocessor, which controls and checks all recoating steps, closes all valves and stops the operation in any emergency. A Cassegrain spectrograph (donation from Okayama Astrophysical Observatory, Japan) will be attached to the telescope, after modification, for use with a CCD camera instead of the image-intensifier used before. This spectrograph will be used to obtain medium-dispersion and low dispersion spectra for faint stars and galaxies down to 15th magnitude.