|
Road
map and location
Regione
Umbria, Perugia
University, Comune
di Montone and ENEA (PNRA
branch) have 
inaugurated in date 16 May 2000 the New Astronomical
Observatory at Coloti, a
site near the medioeval town of Montone
(Perugia, Italy).
The Coloti Observatory is a
building of the Regione
Umbria and is operated by the Perugia
University. The observatory hosts the International
(formerly Italian) Robotic Antarctic Infrared Telescope
(IRAIT) built by the PNRA
(Programma Nazionale di Ricerche in Antartide) and
dedicated to infrared astronomy from Antarctica. Now it is
under testing. The telescope together with a mid-infrared
camera funded by INAF
(Italian Institute for Astrophysics) will be installed in
the Dome
C Italian-French base on the inner Antarctica Plateau
in 2006-07. Information about the last Italian PNRA
expedition can be found in the web: Italiantartide.
The Antarctic continent
offers ideal atmospheric conditions to carry out
observations at infrared wavelengths longer than 5
microns, a task which is possible only from space with
rare and short-lived infrared satellites.
The IRAIT telescope will be a f/20 Cassegrain with a 0.8m
parabolic primary mirror and an oscillating secondary
mirror. It will be equipped with an IR--camera
based on a Si:As or Si:Sb array of
128x128 pixels operating in the spectral range 8 -
27micron (Si:As) or 8 - 40micron (Si:Sb). More detailed
infotmation on the project can be found in the links
below:
|
home
