The 152cm telescope is regularly used for scientific observations, and is available for about 350 nights/year. In the last few years both the 60cm and 152cm Loiano telescopes are also open to students. The statistics of the last years is given in Table 2. Time is allocated every 6 months, starting in January and July. Each program is scheduled tipically for one week, to avoid excessive fragmentation of the observing time.
It is possible to pre-reduce the observed data with a PC in a local network. See section 6.4 for an updated situation of the Loiano computer facilities. MIDAS and IRAF packages are available and it is possible to implement other software facilities.
| Table 2. Cassini Telescope - Nights used per year | ||||||||
| nights/year | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 |
used (t 50%) |
106 | 122 | 105 | 98 | 110 | 121 | 133 | 138 |
used (t 50%) |
26 | 19 | 41 | 22 | 38 | 35 | 31 | 35 |
| used for test | 37 | 32 | 58 | 33 | 15 | 10 | 6 | 3 |
| not used (weather) | 183 | 180 | 142 | 179 | 189 | 163 | 172 | 107 |
| not used (technical) | 3 | 1 | 10 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| not assigned | 11 | 11 | 10 | 29 | 13 | 33 | 23 | 30 |