Collaborative effort :
COURTESY OF Aziz Kaeouach
This photo of ARP 273 was taken by astrophotographer Aziz Kaeouach at the High Atlas Observatory in Morocco . ARP 273 is a pair of interacting galaxies located in the Andromeda constellation . See page 16 for more astrophotography taken by Aziz Kaeouach .
Moroccan observatory brings together amateur , professional astronomers
By HASSANE DARHMAOUI
Guest contributor
In May 2021 , amateur astronomers , collaborating under the Moroccan Association of Astrophotography ( MAA ), constructed a new robotic observatory inside the premises of the professional Oukaïmeden observatory . The observatory is located 80 km south of Marrakech in the high Atlas Mountains at an altitude of 2,750 meters . The objective is to benefit from the excellent seeing of the site for developing astrophotography , but more importantly is to engage amateur astronomers in cuttingedge science with the support of professional astronomers affiliated to the nearby Cadi-Ayyad University in Marrakech . This is the first pro-am collaboration of its kind in Morocco . The new roll-off roof MAA observatory , called High Atlas Observatory ( HAO ), currently holds five telescopes , with room for one more eventually . Users of the observatory can access the
COURTESY OF Astronomer Amateur Aziz Kaeouach
Domes in the Oukaïmeden Observatory as seen from the newly established Amateur Observatory HAO . Oukaïmeden Observatory is located 80 km south of Marrakech in the High Atlas Mountains at an altitude of 2,750 meters above sea level . Its coordinates are 7o 52 ’ 52 ’’ West and 31o 12 ’ 32 ’’ North . Oukaïmeden has a median seeing of about 0.9 arcsec with frequent periods of 0.5 – 0.6 arcsec . It has very good climate statistics , especially in terms of the number of photometric nights per year which ranges between 260 and 300 . The Oukaïmeden Observatory was established in 1986 and it developed to rank among the most important astrophysics research infrastructures in Africa . Several telescopes and scientific instruments are installed there to carry various research related to the following fields : ● Planetology and small bodies of the solar system : MOSS , TRAPPIST-Nord and OWL telescopes ( Optical Wide-field patroL- Network ) in addition to meteorite detection cameras . ● Exoplanets : Meade-16 , TRAPPIST-Nord and OWL ( Optical Wide-field patroLNetwork ) telescopes ● Variable stars : Herschel spectrograph on Meade-16 Telescope ● Space meteorology : RENOIR experiment ( solar activity on the planetary environment ) and GPS station ● Space Science : Branch of the SWORM project .
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