Observations of Faint Stars Deep to 16th Magnitude with CCD Meridian Circle

Abstract

The experimental works for the development of the CCD micrometer to be used in global astrometry are coming to the final stage at the National Astronomical Observatory, Mitaka. Our goal is to observe and determine the precise optical positions of faint celestial objects deep to 16th mag with meridian circle. The so-called drift scanning method is adopted as the basic electrical architecture to detect and accumulate the photons from the target objects. Reported in this paper are the performances and some results of the test observations made by using the CCD micrometer equipped to Gautier meridian circle at Mitaka. The present CCD meridian circle was used in 1991 to determine directly the optical position of 3C273B in the FK5 system. Also reported are the test observations of the Seyfert galaxy NGC 1068.