There are currently four telescopes used as part of the Jarnac Comet Survey. Each has been given a name to help when referring to each of them. They are:

Obadiah
The survey's workhorse. A 0.3-m f/2.2 Schmidt camera, Obadiah produces images of the sky on film that cover approximately 22 square degrees in area. Exposure times are typically 15 minutes and reach magnitude 17. Pairs of films are taken and examined in a stereo-microscope. While the limiting magnitude is modest, the large areal coverage makes for a very effective instrument.

Horus
The first instrument to be fully automated, Horus is a 0.2-m Schmidt Cassegrain that is focal reduced down to f/4.35. A CCD that covers approximately one half a square degree per image is attached. In two minute exposures, Horus will reach a limiting magnitude of 18. The ability of this instrument to run completely unattended is essential for carrying out survey operations at a remote dark site with limited personnel resources.

Ophelia
The remaining part of the Shoemaker-Levy Double Cometrograph project, which has become part of the Jarnac Comet Survey, this 0.2-m f/1.5 Schmidt camera is capable of enormous fields of view (well over 100 square degrees per image) is limited only by the shallow limiting magnitude of 13. The data that have been taken over many years with this instrument will form the foundation at large sizes for our statistical survey of the comet population.

Esther
A 0.25-m Schmidt-Cassegrain that has been focal reduced down to f/3.3, Esther serves as the follow-up instrument for the survey. Matched with a CCD camera and soon to be automated, the 0.15 square degree field of view is well suited to confirming and recovering any detections while allowing the scopes that are optimized for survey work to continue doing their task.

Image Notes
The images of each telescope were taken at night with an astronomical CCD and regular camera lens. One minute long exposures were sufficient to record the ghostly images of each instrument silhouetted against the night sky. The bright light seen to the left of Obadiah is evening twilight skyglow, which appears quite prominent under the strong contrast stretch needed to see the telescope itself.

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