Home Page for Alma-Ata Observatory Mars Images

last modified Page access count =

Alma-Ata Observatory, Kazakhstan

This page contains a compendium of CCD images obtained from the 60-cm telescope at Alma-Ata Observatory, Kazakhstan, by Academicians Victor Tejfel, Vladimir Vdovichenko, and colleagues.

Professor Tejfel writes: "All images which were sent to you were obtained with 60-cm telescope, CCD-camera ST-6V (SBIG) and magnifying filter block, which gives the equivalent focal length 12.3 m. The filters used at these observations are following: UV - combination of two glass filters (ultraviolet and blue-green to cut infrared tail), 502 and 619 - interference filters with effective wavelengths 502 and 619 nm, IR - combination of two glass filters (red and violet with IR tail). The exposure times are 15, 4, 0.7, and 0.1 sec correspondingly. Mean approximate counts number are 10, 45, 35, and 40 thousands (65535 is the saturation limit). The temperature of CCD is -20 C with accuracy about 0.01 degrees. The noise dark counts are 100-200."

The images are being obtained as part of the 1996-97 Amateur-Professional Marswatch project. These images have great value because of the location of Alma-Ata Observatory halfway around the world from most of the U.S. Marswatch observers. Thus, they cover the opposite hemisphere of Mars as images on the same night in the Western hemisphere, allowing full global coverage to be obtained by combining the data sets.

Posting: May 16, 1997