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!
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