A New 0.8m Astronomical Observatory Constructed Near Mitzpe Ramon 

A new observatory has been set-up near the town of Mitzpe Ramon in the Negev desert and started operations in September 2022. The telescope is of a Ritchey-Chretien configuration, which is controlled by a German mount, and is fully robotic. It is hosted in a computer controlled dome (see image to the left). It is currently the second largest single-aperture telescope in Israel, and having a compact design. The telescope will be largely devoted to probing the innermost regions around highly accreting supermassive black holes in the centers of galaxies, but can be used to probe general attributes of the transient sky with high cadence. Unique equipment will be installed on the telescope, which includes a tens of custom-made intermediate band filters, as well as a polarimeter that can measure the light polarization in addition to light intensity and spectral information. The telescope will be controlled from the main campus and data will be transmitted to local computers for further analysis. Construction of the new observatory was made possible through a grant by the Israeli Science Foundation. 

For additional information about the telescope and its operations please follow this link, or contact Doron Chelouche.