• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.47-56
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• 1999

We have improved the control and driving system of 16' reflector at Kwanak Observatory at Seoul National University, by completing encoder unit, and by developing programs for correction of errors resulting from hardware defects. The hardware defects of this telescope system are the large backlash and the nonuniform tracking and pointing. The telescope pointing accuracy for RA is improved to a few arc minutes, and that for DEC is several tens of arc minutes. The guiding error is improved to 0.7 arcsec/minute, allowing up to 3 minutes exposure for CCD imaging under typical seeing conditions at the Observatory.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.33-37
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• 1999

We have constructed a synthetic spectrum of the 2.5 micron $C_2H$ bands and compared them with diminutive structures in the near-infrared spectra of Comets P/Halley and West (1976 VI). We found that the Q branches of the $C_2H$ bands coincide with two small emission peaks in the spectra of the comets. We undertook Monte Carlo simulations using observed emission intensities of $C_2$ and possibly $C_2H$ in Comet P/Halley in order to derive a lifetime range of $C_2H$ and a production rate at the time of observations of P/Halley. We obtained a $C_2H$ production rate of $1\times10^{27}\;sec^{-1}$ for P/Halley on December 20, 1985, assuming the 2.5 micron features are due to $C_2H$. We derived a very short lifetime (<100 seconds) of $C_2H$ at 1AU heliocentric distance, assuming that the only parent molecule for $C_2H$ and $C_2$ is $C_2H$. Using this short lifetime we were unable to fit our $C_2$ distribution model to $C_2$ distribution curves observed by O'Dell et al.(1988), because our curve shows a steep slope compared with the observed one. We conclude that there must be significant additional source(s) for $C_2H$ and $C_2$ other than $C_2H_2$.