The TP2m, manufactured by Nishimura Inc. (Japan), is a F/8 general purpose Ritchey-Chretien telescope with an Alt-Az mount. The TP2m is a join project between NCU(Graduate Institute of Astronomy, National Central University), SHAO (ShanghaiAstronomical Observatory), UNAM (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México), and
ASIAA (Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics). One of the maingoal for the TP2m is to follow-up alerts released by the Vera Rubin Observatory’sLegacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST). Nevertheless the TP2m can also be used forother forefront research areas proposed by the four partnered institutions. The TP2mwill be located in San Pedro Martir, Mexico, a site with excellent astro-climate.
The planned first-light instrument for the TP2m is a multi-color (rizy) simultaneousimager, at which light from the telescope was split into four beams using dichroicmirrors (DM). Three CCDs purchased from Spectral Instruments would be used for theriz filters, while the y-band CCD camera is a in-house assembled camera based on athick fully-depleted chip (2K × 4K pixels) made by Hamamatsu.
Schedule and Status
- The telescope has been retro-fitted at Nishimura, and added a Nasmyth motorfor fast switching between two Nasmyth platforms and the Cassegrain focus. Thetelescope is ready to ship to SPM at the end of 2023.
- Site at SPM selected, design of the enclosure completed. Construction expectedto start in 2024.
- Dome is waiting for the vendor and manufacturer (several vendors contacted,pending for final decision).
- The 4-color imager is pending for final assembly and testing.
- First-light and commissioning expected in early 2025.
Personnel at NCU
- Prof.Wen-Ping Chen
- Prof.Yi Chou
- Prof.Chow-Choong Ngeow
- Prof.Yen-Chen Pan
- Prof.Ting-Wan Chen
- Prof.Chung-Ming Ko