The Bordeaux and Valinhos CCD meridian circles

¹ Observatoire de Bordeaux, UMR 5804, CNRS, BP. 89, F-33270 Floirac, France
² IAG-USP, Departamento de Astronomia, Caixa Postal 3386, 01060-970 São Paulo, Brazil

Send offprint request to: B. Viateau

Received: 8 July 1998
Accepted: 27 July 1998

Abstract

A first CCD camera working in scan mode (declination field ) was mounted in 1994 on the Bordeaux CCD meridian circle. After a testing period, this camera was installed on the Valinhos CCD meridian circle (near São Paulo, Brazil), as part of a collaboration between Bordeaux Observatory and the Instituto Astronomico e Geofisico of São Paulo. A second improved CCD camera, with a declination field of , was installed on the Bordeaux instrument in June 1996. The mean internal precision of a single observation is about in both coordinates for . In the same magnitude range, magnitudes can also be obtained with an internal precision of about 0.05 mag. Both instruments can participate efficiently in extending the Hipparcos- Tycho frame, during the next decade. Among other duties, the Bordeaux CCD meridian circle is being used since January 1997 for completing the Méridien 2000 project. The characteristics of both instruments and some results obtained with them are presented in this paper.