“Somewhere, something
incredible is waiting to be
known". Sharon Begley
Copyright © 2023 by Dennis Roscoe, Ph.D. Last Update was September 20, 2023
Observatory
The Observatory building is a SkyShed POD on a 9 x
9 foot concrete slab with an isolated 16 inch pier.
Telescope System
Takahashi TOA-130F f/5.3 with reducer, Bisque
Paramount MX.
Optical Train
SBIG STF-8300M camera , Takahashi TOA-130R
Reducer with spacer rings resulting in a f/5.3 optical
system.
SBIG OAG-8300 Off-axis guider, ST-i guide camera
and FW8-8300 filter wheel with Astrodon 5nm Ha,
OIII, and SII filters.
3 inch FeatherTouch Focuser with Starizona
MicroTouch Remote Focusing System.
Pier Design
An isolated 16 inch pier goes down 6.5 feet mating
with a Big Foot footing form. A 4 inch PVC pipe
carries redundant CAT5e network lines back to the
house.
RoscoeSkies
Four 14" stainless steel 3/4" L-bolts (Dan's Pier Top
Plates) are held in a wooden template for placement
into the 16" concrete pier.
Power Platform
A power platform has been designed to keep all of
the power supplies and USB2 cables off the floor of
the observatory. A USB2 controlled power strip is
used to remotely control the RSO lights. In the
future, it will also be used to open the dome.
Remote Control
The observatory is completely remote controlled via
a single CAT5e cable that runs 200 feet into my office
in the house. All the USB2 equipment in the
observatory is converted into a CAT5e networking
protocol and then converted back to USB2 once in
the house.
RSO Control Room
There are six applications programs that control the
operation of the RSO; TheSkyX Professional Edition,
TSX Camera Control, MicroTouch Focuser Control,
FocusMax, PowerUSB, and Dimension 4.