Observatories

Sierra-Remote Observatories

Shaver Lake, California, USA
2006 – 2012

About an hour south of Yosemite National Park at 4600′, 21.3 mags/sqarcsec sky brightness and seeing typically <2″, this is an ideal, remote imaging site. Our equipment resides in a 10′ x 12′ remotely controlled roll-off roof, elevated observatory.

Equipment includes:

  • Paramount ME
  • RC Optical Systems 16″ f/8.9 tube RC reflector with secondary focuser and camera rotator
  • Astrodon MonsterMOAG off-axis guider with and SBIG ST-402 guide CCD
  • Apogee U16M CCD imaging camera with 4098x4098 (16 MPix) and Apogee AI-FW50-7S housing 50 mm square Astrodon Generation 2 LRGB and 3 nm OIII, H-a and SII filters

 

  • Takahashi FSQ106N on 16″ RC
  • Astrodon TAKometer camera rotator
  • Tehcnical Innovations Robo Focus focuser
  • Astrodon MonsterMOAG off-axis guider with SBIG
  • STL Remote Guide Head guider
  • SBIG STL11000 + FW8 filter wheel housing 50 mm dia. Astrodon Generation 2 LRGB and 3 nm OIII,
  • H-a and SII filters

Partner: Paul Mortfield, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

iTelescope Observatory

Siding Spring, NSW, Australia
2013 –

West of Coonabarabran in the Warrumbungle National Park near the Anglo Australian Telescope in the state of New South Wales at ~3725′, >21.7 mags/sqarcsec sky brightness and seeing typically <2″. This is a rare, remote southern hemisphere imaging location.

Equipment includes:

  • PlaneWave Ascension 200h mount with optical encoders capable of ~ 10 min unguided
  • PlaneWave corrected Dall-Kirkham design (CDK20) 20″  f/6.8 open truss telescope with Hedrick rotator/focuser
  • Astrodon MonsterMOAG off-axis guider with SBIG ST-i guide CCD
  • Apogee U16M deep-cooling  CCD imaging camera 4096 x 4096 (16 MPix)  resulting in ~0.53″/pix Apogee AI-FW50-10S filter wheel with 10 filters 50 mm square Astrodon Generation 2 LRGB and 3 nm OIII,  H-a, NII and SII narrowband filters, NIRLuminance (NIR cut-on >700 nm, 5 nm red continuum (645 nm CWL).

 

  • Takahashi TOA130 5″ refractor on CDK20 with super-reducer resulting in f/5.8 and 760 mm focal length
  • Tehcnical Innovations Robo Focus focuser
  • Apogee U16M CCD imaging camera with 4096 x 4096 (16 MPix) and Apogee AI-FW50-7S  for a plate scale of 2.44″/pixel and housing 50 mm square Astrodon Generation 2 LRGB and 3 nm OIII, and 5 nm H-a and SII filters.
  • SBIG ST-402 CCD guider mounted in Mini-BORg guide scope atop TOA130
  • Computer partitioned with duplicate software to run either the CDK or TOA system.

Partner: Josep Drudis, Philadelphia, PA