Roscoe Skies Observatory

Observatory Building - YouTube Video

The Observatory building is a SkyShed POD on a 9 x 9 foot concrete slab with an isolated 16 inch pier.

Telescope Systems

Takahashi TOA-130F f/5.7 with reducer, AstroTech 102 f/7.0, and Bisque Paramount MX.

Optical Train

ZWO ASI2600MM Pro camera, Takahashi TOA-130R Reducer with spacer rings resulting in a f/5.7 optical system. ZWO ASI174MM solar Camera. ZWO OAG-L, ST-i guide camera and ZWO 7x36mm filter wheel with Astrodon 5nm Ha, OIII, SII and LRGB filters. 3 inch FeatherTouch Focuser with Starizona MicroTouch Remote Focusing System and ZWO EAF on Solar telescope with Daystar Quark 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.

Celestron 8” Cassigrain, Celestron AVX Mount, Starizona MicroTouch Focuser, ZWO ASI120MM planetary camera, Polemaster camera for both polar alignment and as an electronic finder.

RSO Control Room

There are six applications programs that control the operation of the RSO running on a headless mini-PC in the observatory and portable Planetary System; TheSkyX Professional Edition, TSX Camera Control, MicroTouch Focuser Control, Voyager, Viking, Celestron CPWI and Dimension 4. The mini-PCs operate under the control of a remote desktop.

“Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known". Sharon Begley