Forest Park Astronomy 

Streaming Video Cameras at Forest Park High SchoolLive Images from the Roof of Forest Park High School

Prince William County Schools, Manassas, VA

Plymouth Observatory 

Streaming Video Cameras at PCIS‘Live’ Images from the Roof of Plymouth Community Intermediate School

Plymouth Public Schools, Plymouth, MA

Coronado Hα

$659 (PST)

Coronado CaK (tbd!)

$599 (PST)

LX200R 8”

$2699

(10” $3699 *)

Solar filter *

$112.50

(10” $97.50 off-axis)

Meade

LPI $99

DSI $399

ST-7XME ccd camera

SBIG $2495

Digital spectrograph

SBIG $1595

Filter wheel & 5 filters

SBIG $595

Spectrograph of Vega

auto-focuser

$450 (JMI)

* donated bySteve Zulon

 

 

 

“All Sky”/Meteor camera/ Cloud Sensor

$1999Boltwood Cloud Sensor

$1500

cloud, rain, snow

wind speed

temperature & humidity

COMPUTER stuff

• Computer to run equipment to control telescopes• Server system to store images• “Real time” images available “24/7” (intervals)• Images are archived• Images can be downloaded• On-screen information: Date, time, filter, device, FoV, RA

& Dec, Alt & Az, …• Daytime images – Sun: 1 visible, 1 Hα & 1 CaK; images

of Moon, Jupiter, Venus (if any in sky)• Nighttime images – all night, pre-programed to view

various solar system and deep-sky objects

Use of Observatory• Pre-programed sequence of observations &

images – after a given length of time, a compilation of images used for various lessons (K-12) available online

• Special events or objects – pre-programed or programed by user (Plymouth teacher and/or student, SSAS member or some ‘Plymouth community member’) who has gone through a “selection process” and pre-use training (simple telescope and observation lessons)

• Organized with other distant observatories for parallax and timing measurements

other Issues…

• Approximate cost - $17,000 (‘installation’ of dome not included)

• alternative energy – windmill and/or solar panels

• web cams for observing dome and telescope to monitor motions

• government surplus equipment

• …

Images by Steve LuzaderThis montage shows images of Comet Holmes.  October 31 and November 3 images are stacks of five 5 second STV exposures through 80 mm ShortTube f/5 refractor.  The November 2 image is a stack of about forty 1/2 second exposures taken over about a one hour period through unguided 80 mm f/6.5 apochromat.  The final image was rescaled to match the angular magnification of the ShortTube images.  The comet has increased dramatically in size over the three-day interval represented, and the increase in noise in the images suggests that its overall brightness has decreased.  (The image processing software has rescaled the images so the brightest pixels always look white.)  The rapid increase in size and decrease in brightness seems to support the suggestion that the comet brightened as a result of the emission of a large cloud of dust and vapor.