The Xinglong 2.16-m Telescope: Current Instruments and Scientific Projects

The Xinglong 2.16-m reflector is the first 2-m class astronomical telescope in China. It was jointly designed and built by the Nanjing Astronomical Instruments Factory (NAIF), Beijing Astronomical Observatory (now National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences, NAOC), and Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1989. It is a Ritchey-Chretien (R-C) reflector on an English equatorial mount and the effective aperture is 2.16 m. It had been the largest optical telescope in China for similar to 18 years until the Guoshoujing Telescope (also called Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope, LAMOST) and the Lijiang 2.4-m telescope were built. At present, there are three main instruments on the Cassegrain focus available: the Beijing Faint Object Spectrograph and Camera (BFOSC) for direct imaging and low-resolution (R similar to 500-2000) spectroscopy, the spectrograph made by Optomechanics Research Inc. (OMR) for low-resolution spectroscopy (the spectral resolutions are similar to those of BFOSC) and the fiber-fed High Resolution Spectrograph (HRS; R similar to 30,000-65,000). The telescope is widely open to astronomers all over China as well as international astronomical observers. Each year there are more than 40 ongoing observing projects, including 6-8 key projects. Recently, some new techniques and instruments (e.g., astro-frequency comb calibration system, polarimeter, and adaptive optics) have been or will be tested on the telescope to extend its observing abilities.