It is located at the summit of Mount Lulin in Xinyi Township, Nantou County. In 2007, Comet Lulin (C/2007 N3), was found by this observatory, and became the first comet discovered by a Taiwanese researcher.[1] The minor planet 147918 Chiayi was also discovered here.[2]
The Lulin 1 meter had its first light in September 2002, after 10 years of development.[3]
Telescopes
LOT Cassegrain telescope (D=1-m, f/8)
SLT R-C telescope (D=0.40-m, f/8.8) by RC Optical Systems[4] or 76-cm Super Light Telescope (SLT)
The Lulin Sky Survey searched for near-Earth objects from 2006 to 2009.[6] The Lulin Sky Survey Telescope,[7] a 16-inch (41 cm) Ritchey–Chrétien telescope with a field of view of 27 arcminutes, was operated remotely from mainland China, with robotic software developed in-house.[8][9] In addition to searching for new objects, the survey refined the orbits of known minor planets and comets, and performed photometric analysis of a subset of objects.[9] The principal investigator, student Quan-Zhi Ye of Sun Yat-sen University, was awarded the 2007 Shoemaker NEO Grant to develop the project.[6] Ye later identified a comet from images collected in July 2007 by collaborator Chi Sheng Lin; the unusual retrograde comet, formally named C/2007 N3, became known as Comet Lulin. It made its closest approach to Earth in February 2009.[10] Over the course of the survey, 781 new objects were discovered, including Comet Lulin and three fragments of comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann.[9] The LUSS project benefited from its location at a longitude with few other observatories looking for minor planets.[9]
W.S. Tsay, B. C. Chen, K.H. Chang, et al., 2001, “The NCU Lu-Lin Observatory”, in Proceedings of the IAU Colloquium 183 “Small-Telescope on Global Scales”, eds. W.P. Chen, C. Lemme, B. Paczynski, ASP.
