|
Bear Creek Observatory is a privately owned amateur observatory located in
Woodinville, WA USA. It was designed and built from scratch by Jonathan Fay
with some help from friends over the period of a year between September
of 2002 and September of 2003. The original blog of the construction can be
found here .
Jonathan gives talks and slideshows on the design and development of personal
observatories for astronomy clubs and star parties, using the construction
experience as a case study. He presented two talks at the
Table Mountain Star Party in July of 2004, one on construction and one
on software and automation, and again on DSLR Astrophotography in 2005.
Observatory
The observatory consists of a 8x16 first floor with a 8’ cylindrical second
floor topped by a 8’ dome with split-shutter design. The dome is motorized and
computer controlled with provisions for telescope tracking and shutter
operation. A custom dome controller powered by a
Microchip PIC 16F877A, custom firmware and an
ASCOM compliant dome driver allow for automated operation. Two linear
actuators control the split shutter to automate opening and closing.
Equipment
The primary scope is a
Meade LX200GPS-12, wide filed is done thru a Orion ED80 APO. The scope
is mounted on a pier with a 6400lb concrete cube foundation approximate
4’x4’x4’.
Imaging is done thru an Canon EOS 5D with autofocus thru a Meade 1209
electric micro-focuser autoguided by Maxim/DL with a Meade DSI PRO camera.
Additional Imaging is done thru Canon Eos 300D 6.3 Mega Pixel Digital SLR driven
by the Maxim/DL
Portable setup is a Meade LXD75 with a 6' Newtonion Guide scope with a ED80 APO
piggyback for imaging.
Planetary shots are taken thru a Philips ToUcam.
The Boldwood Cloud Sensor
and a computerized wireless weather station allow fully automated observing.
Kendrick dew heater
prevents dewing of the corrector plate.
Software
Scope control is thru ASCOM
drivers.
Stray Night Pro Plus and
The Sky 6 are used for research and planning.
Maxim/DL from
Cyanogen is used for imaging and instrument control.
ACP3 from DC3 Dreams
is used for observatory control and batch automation.
Pinpoint from DC3
Dreams is used for astrometric processing.
The entire USNO A2.0 and
B1.0 are online consisting of over 1,000,000,000 entries and has
positions, magnitudes and proper motions for each object.
|