Auxiliary Port Imaging Camera

First light:

De-commissioned: June 2009.

Designed and built by: RGO

Description: The Acquisition and Guiding Unit provides a rigid support for the acquisition television camera and autoguider systems it contains, and a mounting for the Cassegrain instruments. The autoguider is based on the use of a CCD as detector, which is fed by means of a scanning prism assembly which can rotate about the instrument axis and be moved radially to acquire an appropiate guide star. In addition to the main instrument mounting face, the unit has an auxiliary focal station, the so-called Auxiliary Port Camera. This unit also provides another auxiliary port.

Some scientific highlights:

• First detection of gravitational microlensing (1989)
• The deepest ground_based count of galaxies (1995)
• William Herschel Telescope Identifies the Companion Star to Type Ia Tycho Brahe's 1572 Supernova (2004)
• First Detection of a Progenitor Star From a Normal Type II-P Supernova (2004)
• A Wide Companion Near the Deuterium Mass Limit (2008)