The start of spectroscopy on Kolonica Saddle
In 2018, I made the first spectrum of a variable star. LISA spectrograph was installed on 11″ Celestron telescope. The instrument was purchased as one part of Gerald Handler’s grant. The plan was to install it on the 60 cm telescope of Masaryk University in Brno, Czech republic. For technical reasons, it was not possible. Then arises the option of 1 meter VNT. But the 9-meter focal length is too much for the slit of the spectrograph. Thus, the final destination was C11 telescope. In the observing program, there were Be stars from Gerald’s list. From time to time, I made a spectrum of a symbiotic star. In 2018 the special attention was paid to the newly discovered symbiotic star ASASSN-V J195442.95+172212.6 = V426 Sge.
LISA spectrograph was finally returned to Masaryk University. Several papers were published based on observations made in Kolonica. Then LHiresIII from the Astronomical Institute of the Slovak Academy of Science was installed on C14 telescope. In 2025 was replaced by a new echelle spectrograph NOU-T designed according to the Tim Lester scheme. In the Atacama pavilion, another spectrograph is working. The Shelyak UVEX low-resolution slit spectrograph is mounted on 16″ Ritchey-Chretien telescope. This instrument operates on the Alt-Azimuthal mount AZ2000, paired with a 28cm Pupava telescope, which can be used for simultaneous photometry. The observing program is focused on novae and symbiotic variables.
