OBSERVATORY
CSM Clear Sky Clock
Tuesday Night Lab
The rooftop observatory is buzzing with activity every Tuesday night, as students observe double stars, planets,
and star clusters.
Students learn to identify night sky objects
both naked eye, and hands-on through our telescopes. One popular exercise is to calculate "power" using various focal length eyepieces with the Dobsonians.
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In "red light" students look for double star Albireo, through the 8" Dobs. |
20" RC Telescope
The 20" open truss tube Ritchey-Chretien telescope from RC Optical Systems
is producing images, and "T-Point" software has been established for accurate polar alignment. This allows students and the public to find specific targets, and follow their motion through the sky.
On steady nights, the 20" gives impressive views of double stars, jaw-dropping lunar detail, and Saturn's rings! We'll have a look at the next public event.
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20" RC Telescope |
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The Observatory
Our observatory is of the roll-off roof design. Therefore, it does not look like the typical domed observatory. An advantage of this design, is that more telescopes can be used simultaneously. In addition, the observatory can quickly reach thermal equilibrium. This results in steadier views through our telescopes.
Here is some of our equipment:
1- 5.5" TEC 140 APO refractor 1- Meade 8" SCT
1- 8" Celestron Orange SCT 1- Meade 10" SCT
1- 4" Unitron refractor 1- 14" Celestron SCT ( SMCAS scope)
1- 12" Astrola Newtonian reflector
5- 8" Orion XT Intelliscope dobsonian
1- 10" Orion XT Intelliscope dob. 1- 4" Clark refractor built in 1876
The dobs are used in the ASTR 103 observational lab, as well as for public star parties. The Meade 8" SCT is used primarily for the SGS, and the TEC refractor for imaging. The only scopes not actively used are the Clark and Unitron refractors (the latter needs some updated equipment while the former is our museum piece).
Other equipment:
3 Pier-Tech 3 piers
2 HGM Titan mounts with the Gemini GOTO system
2 SBIG ST-7E CCD cameras with RGB filters
1 SBIG SGS spectrometer
1 Losmandy G-11 mount with Gemini L4
Here are some pictures of our new observatory. You will see new images added from time to time.
North towards San Francisco |
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Some of our scopes |
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TEC 140 APO
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