RocketSTEM Issue #6 - March 2014 | Página 7

The warm room / studio / Workspace at KPO: a place to work, learn, and relax. there are a number of other telescopes that piggy-back onto the main optic. These are used for finding the correct area of the sky and for locking the telescope onto a star to guide it accurately. In fact these telescopes are actually as big as a lot of amateur astronomers main telescopes. The telescopes are all attached to a German Equatorial Mount. This allows the telescope to be set up so that when the star or object you want to view is in the center of the image all you need to do is to move the mount on one axis. This requires correct and precise alignment of the mount, which I will cover in a later article. To keep the object in view the mount has motors that move the telescope at the same rate that the stars move through the sky. Obviously for the stars to be seen the dome needs to be opened. The dome has sliding doors that open to allow a portion of the sky to be visible. The telescope itself stays inside the dome protecting it from the wind and rain. Indeed should the weather turn nasty it is a quick and easy task to close the dome shutters and seal the telescope in the dome. As I mentioned above the mount moves at the same rate as the stars. This means that over time the telescope will move away from the open slot of the dome. To keep the telescope in the center of the opening the entire roof revolves on a wheeled system. This is currently a manual operation, but could become automated at some later point. So with the telescope set up and running what do you do? Simple you go downstairs to the ‘warm room’ and have some fun while the telescope is automatically moving and taking pictures. With the networking facilities available in the observatory you can even control all the features of the telescopes. Kitted out with a large screen TV and full studio facilities you can either relax and enjoy or, as Photo: Mike Barrett David often does, use it to present astronomy programmes as part of his outreach project. All you need to remember is to run upstairs every so often to nudge the dome round. To see more details about the construction of the observatory visit the Kissimmee Park Observatory website at www.kpobservatory. org. You can contact David via FaceBook at www.facebook.com/ kpobservatory to arrange to visit the observatory. I have used just one example here to explain how an observatory works, but there are many similar establishments scattered around the World. Why not look up your local Astronomy Club on the internet and see if they have a programme of events for you to join in. If you are an educator why not approach your local club and see if they will come to your school and do a presentation. Our club gets lots of requests and we always manage to find some members to go out and spread the word! 05 www.RocketSTEM.org 05