New Twin GRAS Observatory in S.A!

[Aussie Pete]

Hi All :)

Thought you may like to see what a little hard work in the desert can achieve :) Just finished it last weekend.

The Facility Director is Mr Darren 'Dazza' Wallace and Security by Razor and General..woof woof!

Pete
GRAS-012

[Radar]

Nice work Pete. What make / kind of domes are they? And what kind of scopes will be housed in them?

Cheers

Ray

[Aussie Pete]

Hiya Ray,

The domes are US made 6ft HomeDomes. In the left dome will go a TAK FSQ-EDX and in the right is a 12.5" RCOS open truss.

Howz things BTW?

Pete

[Radar]

Nice scopes there Pete. I'm sure you'll have some fun with those. Are they just for private use?

When you say desert, where abouts are they located?

Things have been busy for me, but no astronomy. We've had heaps of bad weather, which is unusual for Perth.

Cheers

Ray

[Aussie Pete]

Hi Ray :)

Ahh..do you have more than one Ray here at Myastro? hehehe

Anyway i have already posted about the GRAS setup Ray.

See here: From the "Remote Astronomy" thread here.

http://www.myastrospace.com/forums/showthread.php?p=5980#post5980

Hope u dont mind me taking a short cut Ray.

Pete

[Radar]

That's right, I remember now. :duh:

How long until it's fully operational Pete?

Ray

[Aussie Pete]

Morning Ray :)

GRAS 08 (12.5" RCOS) is already on line with its first customer logging in on only 10min or so after it was first connected/online last weekend!

My own GRAS 012 machine is in 'run-in' mode still with new gear due to be installed in the next few weeks (FSQ-X and ST11k) but will be online for trials in the meantime.

Have a nice day mate and regards...Pete

[Tenacious Del]

That's a pretty cool setup.

Does open truss mean that the telescope is not closed with a proper metal tube? And if so, what are the advantages to using open truss?

Thankyou

Del

[rmcpb]

GRAS 08 (12.5" RCOS) is already on line with its first customer logging in on only 10min or so after it was first connected/online last weekend!

My own GRAS 012 machine is in 'run-in' mode still with new gear due to be installed in the next few weeks (FSQ-X and ST11k) but will be online for trials in the meantime.


Pete,

How do people log onto the scopes??

[Aussie Pete]

Gday Del & Rob:)

OK Del, well an "Open Truss" scope design allows outside air to pass freely around the optics and Shevill can probably explain it better than I. Things cool faster and "boundary layer" effects are also minimized in that way.

Rob, GRAS has a nice homesite with most FAQ answered, but basically its a subscriber system with credit points allocated for use on any of the networks telescopes. See here mate:

http://www.global-rent-a-scope.com/

Hope that helps, i really don't want to plug things too heavily in this forum but im happy to answer questions.

Pete

[Aussie Pete]

Hi All,

Im pleased to announce the commissioning of our third robotic telescope at the GRAS facility at Moorook SA. The Fred Vanderhaven GRAS-015 10" RCOS. It will be an imaging/science/research machine for our USA and European users.

Pete


Hi All :)

Thought you may like to see what a little hard work in the desert can achieve :) Just finished it last weekend.

The Facility Director is Mr Darren 'Dazza' Wallace and Security by Razor and General..woof woof!

Pete
GRAS-012

[Radar]

Awesome mate. Is this scope also rentable online for anyone?

Ray

[AstroTasmania]

Hi Aussie Pete,

Great gear & a very nice set-up you have there. Just to add a little to your comments:

Open truss tubes are used for several reasons, as Pete said, there are no tube currents as the open framework allows air to flow freely round all the optical components. Another big factor is weight, just imagine the extra weight if these large scopes were enclosed in metal tubes. Another very important feature with open frameworks is that is is much easier to disperse the boundary layer (warm air sitting on the surface of the mirror) when the mirror is still cooling down to night time temps.

Access to optics is easy for cleaning and servicing etc. Many of the so called Truss Tube Dobsonian's are, in reality, various optical systems, (Newtonian's being the most popular for amateurs), mounted on an Alt/AZ mount or similar simple Dobson mount. Check out some of the big observatory scopes which use all these features.

Clear skies...
Shevill

[Aussie Pete]

Well since we've reactivated this thread i'll add a bit for you.

We at MMSAATU have a FastScience account created for us by GRAS.

Its for quick easy internet access to a large Northern Hemisphere GRAS scope for short duration data acquisition, more or less for all you "Amateur Scientists". The MMSAATU ethos states we Promote and Contribute, so I would like to extend that offer to you all here too.

Fast MyAstroScience? Whatever you want. So if forum admin contacts me? We can get the ball rolling :)

Its not for long exposure pretty pictures i repeat. Total free time is limited per month. But enough for comets and NEOS or whatever gets your labcoat dirty.

Ok..thats it..No con jobs. It just feels good to spread the fast science. Its always good to have a spare scope up the sleave.

Pete
G12

[Radar]

\So if forum admin contacts me? We can get the ball rolling :)
your labcoat dirty.


G'day Pete,

Dirty Labcoats sound good to me. PM Sent.

Ray

[Aussie Pete]

G'day all :)

Thought I might post some news and a few new pics from the aussie GRAS setup in South Aust.

Our 3 remote telescopes (G8-G12-G15) are located near Moorook in South Australia. Hosted at the new 'Riverland Dingo Observatory - Telescope Farm'. Its been going very well since late Dec '07. I must say we are very happy with the location and dark skies. There are 6 more networked GRAS scopes at 'New Mexico Skies' in the USA.

We just had a real heat wave in SA most of this month, with 45C plus temps and the odd thunderstorm. Really pushed the systems to their limits but they came through ok so far. (xfingers) We did lose an All Sky Camera due to a strike a while back. But fixed now with a new unit thanks to SBIG. Also had a wombat make its way under a shed :) And Kookaburra poop is huge...

The G12 scope has been fully commissioned now and is housed in a new auto-rolloff shed of her own. The little robodome will now be used to house yet another G telescope in the very near future.

So far G12's Tak FSQ-ED/PME/STL11000 combo is simply amazing for wide field stuff. With her global users turning out some really huge images.

We now also have schools in Denmark and Norway using the scopes in their science classes. We get to help the Hubble Space Telescope at times and work closely with the AAVSO. Also had the first ever telescope imaging sessions controlled & data downloaded to Apple IPhones at a USA University! All this in the first six months...

Now if I can just get some time on it myself! :)

Cheers...Pete

[Tenacious Del]

holy cow, what an amazing shot. what nebula is it please mate?

:bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow:

[Aussie Pete]

Hi Del,

Its NGC 6188 or its surrounds i believe. First time i seen it in narrowband. Its a southern target i've not seen before in narrowband anyways :)
I should point out that i did not take this image, its by John Ebersole of the USA using G12 here in Australia. Its nice huh?

Pete

[Aussie Pete]

G'day Folks,

Well I just got a phone call from my astro-boss :)

Looks like I'm driving the 9 hours to Moorook again this weekend to help install our 4th robotic telescope at the 'Scope Farm'. We have what we term as an "Entry Level" machine to fitout and I will also be giving the established telescopes a once over. Fitting the G12 telescope a new guidescope and guidehead and spare PC in her shed too.

GRAS-013, as the new machine will be called, is a Tak90 on PME with a single colour shot ST-2000XMC CCD camera. It will bring the total number of GRAS global networked telescopes to eleven.

Ok thats it for now..I'll post some new pics when we are done in the desert!

http://www.riverdingo.net.au/index.htm

Thanks and clear skies to you all :)

Pete