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Notes on the Observatory from Previous Lab Manager
The campus observatory is used for the undergraduate observing and for monthly public open houses. We have two domes, each with a Celestron 11” CPC telescope mounted in it. We also have a 16” Dobsonian, which is stored in the North dome. You should get a key to the domes from Ofelia (both domes use the same key). You’ll also need a key to the padlock on the gate. Note that our padlock is the one on the small gate off to the right, not the large double gate at the entrance to the athletics field. The gates to the athletic field are locked with combination locks. Jon H. can get you this combination from the Athletics department, and it’s currently 1888.
The North dome is the oldest, and the slit simply pulls apart manually to open. The South dome has a moterised shutter, but we’ve had issues in the past with it not closing at the end of a night. The shutter is powered by a car battery, which is charged by a solar panel. When I arrived I checked the battery voltages, which were good. Power was also reaching the motor, and it could be heard trying to work, so it didn’t seem to be a wiring issue. At the moment it’s still unclear what causes these issues but it seems to have stopped as of September since I lubricated everything. I only encountered the problem once myself, and in that case simply waiting 5 minutes then pressing the close button again worked.
However, if the shutter does fail to close there is no way to manually close it. So the only thing you can do is move everything out of the dome in to the North Dome, cover the telescope with the plastic sheeting and weigh it down. Previously, apparently the fuses on the right hand side of the dome control box would blow. There are replacements in the top drawer of the desk.
The Astr110 observing nights run on Monday and Wednesday nights, and the semester will be split into two halves. The undergrads have to attend one night in each half. The observatory TA will choose the objects to be observed on each night. There will be 4 objects observed on each night; one with each of the Celestrons, 1 with the dobsonian, and finally a constellation which the TA will point out using a laser pointer. Typically, the same objects will be observed for a whole half, and then we change to different objects in the second half. However, it may be necessary for the targets to be changed due to weather conditions (especially due to clouds).
There will typically be 3 TAs on each night, one of which will be the observatory TA. The observatory TA will usually deal with both the dobsonian and the constellation, leaving the other two to handle one of the Celestrons each.
However, for the final 2 nights in a half, 4 TAs should be scheduled, because these are usually the busiest due to the undergrads leaving it to the last minute to attend an observing night.
You or the observatory TA should run a training night to bring the other TAs up to speed on the operation of the telescopes and the general flow of the observing nights.