Red Barn Observatory MPC/IAU H68
Established 2006
Equipment Used in The Red Barn Observatory
The Telescopes
0.30-Meter Meade LX200 GPS
The primary telescope used in the observatory is a 0.30-meter Meade LX200 GPS. The focal length used is f/4.44 and this is done with a Meade variable f/3.3 focal reducer. This particular focal length is used because the primary work done with the telescope is asteroid work and this focal length working with the SBIG ST-7 allows a decent field of view (11.8' x 17.7') and creates 2.78 arc-seconds per pixel. This setting could be better, but this combination works very well with this equipment.
0.25-Meter Meade Starfinder Equatorial Mounted
Also used in the observatory (for visual observing) is a f/4.5 - 0.25-meter Meade Starfinder on an Equatorial Mount. The Starfinder telescopes were designed with excellent optics and are very sturdy, but the Equatorial Mount was not precise enough for astrophotography. Since the plastic focuser on the Starfinder was very inaccurate, I replaced it with a JMI focuser.
The CCD
Santa Barbra Instruments Group - SBIG ST-7
The ST-7 CCD imager used at the Red Barn Observatory is made by SBIG - Santa Barbra Instruments Groups. This CCD imager is a common scientific imager, but is slowly becoming replaced with better, larger format CCD imagers. This imager is in need of an upgrade since it's still using the parallel port for communication. Parallel cables are much slower than the USB but the most important thing is that the data is collected successfully. More information on this particular CCD imager can be found at this link. http://www.sbig.com/sbwhtmls/st7.htm
Computers
The computers used at the Red Barn Observatory are networked together by a "hard wired" high-speed network. Only one computer is actually needed to control the LX200 and ST-7 but two computers are used. The computer that controls the telescope and camera is called Computer2 on the network. It's a Gateway computer with a Pentium 4 processor and has 26 gigabytes of storage as well as a DVD drive and a CD-Burner. Computer3 is a custom built computer and has a Pentium 3 processor and 10 gigabytes of storage. It contains a standard CD-Player and a CD-Burner. Computer1 is located inside of the house and is the primary computer for storage and controls the computers in the observatory. Computer1 is a Hewlett-Packard and contains a Celeron 2.0 gigahertz processor and 380 gigabytes of storage. It has an external DVD/CD-Burner and 2 CD-Burners. This computer is setup as the Server in the network and controls the other computer by means of Ultra VNC - a remote computer control program. See the Software page for information on the software used.
All Sky "Fireball" Camera
Built by Sandia Laboratories, the all sky "fireball" camera was installed on June 22, 2007. This camera allows constant monitoring of the entire sky for meteors, and automatically records any detected. More information on the all sky camera can be found here.
Copyright © 2006 The Cometary Space Web of Steve E. Farmer Jr.
Last modified 08/31/2010 02:19 PM -0700
This web site has been active since March 1, 2006
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