Sutter Creek Observatory

Site
Latitude and longitude: 38°22'47"N 120°46'31"W (+38.3796, -120.7751)
Elevation: 529m
Site manager: Bill Goff
Internet access:
Weather statistics:
Typical good seasons:

Wright 30 (W30) - Donated by the late Paul Wright

Telescope
Type:  12-inch Meade LX-200 (Classic)
Aperture: 305mm
Focal length: 3050mm
F-ratio: 10
Focuser: Optec TCF-S

Mount
Meade LX-200 (Classic) fork
Pointing accuracy :  Typically 2 – 4 arcminutes 'in the blind', but after a plate solve/reslew pointing error is reduced to 40 arc seconds or less. Maximum unguided tracking restrictions, if any:  60 seconds
Computer:  PC/Win XP
Software:  Maxim for CCD/filter wheel control.  TheSky6Pro/TPoint for scope control and pointing model.  FocusMax for focuser control.  ACP and ACP Scheduler for overall system operation.
Telecope Advocate: Elizabeth Waagen

Imaging 
Typical seeing:  Note.  Images are intentionally defocused with the goal of FWHM 2.2 pixel radius.  At best focus this scope delivers undersampled images.
Best seeing:
Vignetting:
Scattered light:   After flat fielding, photometric errors are at the 1 – 2% level across the entire field.  (Arne has verified this with raster scan multi-image tests.)
Image defects:  None

Camera
Type: SBIG STL-1001E
Filter wheel:  SBIG 8-position
Filters:  BVRIg'r'i'z'  (Astrodon 3mm thick interference filters)
Exposure ratios/filter:  C=0.25   B=3.0   V=1.0   R=0.55   I=1.1  (Note – if your target is a very red star, expect to shorten R and I exposures and lengthen B exposures...assuming V exposures remain constant.)
Pixel count:  1024x1024
Pixel scale:  1.65 arcsec/pixel
Field of view:  28 x 28 arc minutes
Gain: 2.5e-/ADU
Readnoise:  
Full well:  Above 55,000 ADU the response is no longer linear.
Cosmetic defects:  None
Dark current:
Read time:  3 seconds
Shortest exposure:  0.11 sec.
Compressed image size:  420KB

Typical images

Star Image	Flat	Bias Frame	Dark Frame

Typical use of system   
Mostly long time-series, with multi-filter 'snapshot' coverage filling in the rest of the night.

Miscellaneous notes 
Calibrated images are 16-bit, but can have negative values, and non-integer values.  You may have to set up your photometry software to specifically deal with this situation (some software deals with it automatically, some does not).