The NCU Lu-Lin Observatory and its Future Direction

The NCU (National Cent ral University) Lu-Lin Observatory (Fig.1)is located at Mt. Front Lu-Lin, 120°52'25"E and 23°28'07"N, a2862-m peak in the Yu-Shan National Park.The const ruction of Lu-Lin Observatory was finished on January14, 1999.The initial study of Lu-Lin site was started since late 1989.Later on, a three-year project was founded by the National Science Council (NSC)w hich supported the development of a modern seeing monitor for this site survey study from 1990 through 1993.The average seeing of Lu-Lin site is about1.39 arc-second with average 200 clear nights annually.The sky backg round of this site is 20.72 mag/arcsec² in V band and 21.22 mag/arcsec² in B band. The Lu-Lin observatory is developed for both research and education activity.A homemade 76-cm Super Light Telescope(SLT)and three TAOS's 50-cm robotic telescopes will be the two major research facilities.The SLT is expected to be operated in the fall of 1999.We are proposing a pilot program to perform SLT observations of time-varying astrophysical objects exploiting the unique geophysical location (e.g.time and longi tudinal coverage)of Taiw an at the Western Pacific Rim in such topics of emerging interest.The TAOS's telescopes will be installed in the late 1999 for the survey work of Kuiper Belt Objects.A wireless T1 Network system will also be build up for future remote observation.