AZcendant Observatory at Rancho Hidalgo, New Mexico
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Our Motorhome parked at the Rancho Hidalgo Site |
Newfoundland Observatory Cluster |
Observatories at Rancho Hidalgo Proper |
Clyde Tombaugh's personal telescope. (Not the one used to discover Pluto.) |
Deluxe stake showing position where my observatory will be. 23 April 2011 |
Deluxe stake. Looking the other way. 23 April 2011 |
Preparing my Observatory site for pouring of concrete. 5 Jul 2011 |
Pouring concrete for my Observatory. 6 Jul 2011 |
Working on concrete. 6 Jul 2011 |
Clearing pier pads. 6 Jul 2011 |
Finished product. 6 Jul 2011 |
Pads for roll-off roof supports 6 Jul 2011 |
Building similar to mine that was partially complete. Note "warm room" at right end. (Actually, in July, I think I need a "cold room." |
Three walls up. 1 Nov 2011 |
Three walls up. 1 Nov 2011 |
Four walls up and warm room separator. |
Four walls up and warm room separator. |
Looks like the beginnings of a roof! (Photo by Jim Riches. Thanks Jim!) |
Roof Snow Removal? (Photo by Jim Riches. Thanks Jim!) |
Nearly complete. Thanks Gene and Loy! |
Nearly complete. Thanks Gene and Loy! |
Nearly complete. Thanks Gene and Loy! |
Early Morning |
Early Morning |
Early Morning |
Early Morning |
Early Morning Right hand side - Not sure if mirage is right word but cold air flows chopped up distant hills. |
Moving items that had been stored for months |
Moving items that had been stored for months |
Had help from a couple of people who carried these 150 pound piers and placed them upright on the pads. |
Interior view |
Caps on piers |
Caps on piers |
Meade and Celestron CGE mounts on piers |
Meade and Celestron CGE mounts on piers |
First time roof was rolled off |
First time roof was rolled off |
First time roof was rolled off |
View from just outside facing West |
I think I'm beginning to be happy |
Sand Hill Cranes flying by 1-6 Jan 2012 |
Work continuing on the Observatory coincident with my work setting things up 1-6 Jan 2012 |
The LX-200 and the Takahashi TOA-130. Foreground camera attached is ST-11000. 1-6 Jan 2012 |
Wires from scopes to power panel |
That is the Web Power Switch on the wall that various extension cords are plugged into. It allows power to be turned on or off to 8 different pieces of equipment by remote internet control 1-6 Jan 2012 |
Very sensitive Black and White camera pointed up at the night sky. Light pollution does not exist so I don't think I can see clouds if they form. That was my original intention... Will revise on next trip to make that a meteor camera. 1-6 Jan 2012 |
View of the Takahashi TOA-130. It is in "park" position. I wrote a Visual Basic Script to define "park" position so ACP would know where "park" was. 1-6 Jan 2012 |
Solenoid panel I created to get the CGE mount back into the "Last Align" mode. There is no other way to do it. You have to physically push buttons on the hand-controller somehow and this allows me to do that remotely. 1-6 Jan 2012 |
View of the Takahashi TOA-130. It also has a TCF-SI focuser. The camera is a single-shot color ST-4000CM 1-6 Jan 2012 |
View of the base of the Takahashi TOA-130 showing the power and other control cords. 1-6 Jan 2012 |
Base of the LX-200 showing the power and other control cords. 1-6 Jan 2012 |
Warm room computer that controls scopes. Also shown is the remote controlled video server allowing me to see the position of the telescopes. Also Netgear Firewall handling Internet communications 1-6 Jan 2012 |
Warm room computer Computer has a 2 TB disk sitting on it and a box on top of that which contains the Foster board which controls roof opening/closing and determines when magnetic switches show that it is safe to either move the roof or move the telescopes. Uninteruptable power supply is on the floor. 1-6 Jan 2012 |
Small room heater. Provided plenty of heat once the door was installed! 1-6 Jan 2012 |
Additional camera I have not had time to set up yet. Not sure I will continue to leave it mounted in the warm room. I was thinking it could look at the monitor screen but it blanks out after so many minutes... :-) 1-6 Jan 2012 |
Red light controlled by wall-switch in the warm room. 1-6 Jan 2012 |
Red light controlled by wall-switch in the telescope room. 1-6 Jan 2012 |
Susan 1-6 Jan 2012 |
Scopes with me in background shielding my eyes from the totally unfiltered sunlight. 1-6 Jan 2012 |
Scopes and Susan who was smart enough to wear sunglasses... 1-6 Jan 2012 |
Susan behind our observatory. 1-6 Jan 2012 |
Sunset photo by Susan 1-6 Jan 2012 |
Sunset photo by Susan 1-6 Jan 2012 |
Susan near door to warm room 1-6 Jan 2012 |
Howard near door to warm room. I'm REALLY happy at this point. Everything works! (With exception of communication with the SBIG ST-4000 under VMWare Virtual Machine. Ran out of time. Will debug next trip.) 1-6 Jan 2012 |
First remote image - M42. From inside our motor home parked at the Rancho Hidalgo site. Remotely controlled roof, telescope, camera, etc. Stack of 10 5-minute Luminance images. |
Early Morning Mirages in March And yes, I did get VMWare Virtual Machine systems working during this March trip... |
Early Morning Mirages |
Early Morning Mirages |
Howard at outer door. I did the blue paint trim. Thought it would look nice... |
Howard at warm room door
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Howard in warm room
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Susan at outer door
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Susan in warm room
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Warm room computer terminal |
My weather monitor (white thing on pole) and my anemometer in foreground |
Howard at edge of observatory looking happy. |
The AZcendant Observatory
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The AZcendant Observatory with snow
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Water tank with snow
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Our motor home with snow |
View on the way home. |
View on the way home. |
View on the way home. |
As soon as we crossed the Arizona line! |
Gene Turner, owner of Rancho Hidalgo. | Mine in the area that offers tours. |
Rocketry associated with Rancho Hidalgo
Local wildlife at Rancho Hildago
Turkey Vulture in the area. |
Horned Lizard. Often called "horney toad." These almost became extinct in Texas in the 60's when people were selling them to tourists and paying kids a nickle per critter to collect them. |
Horned lizard. They eat ants. The ones bought by tourists typically died... |
Horned Lizard. |
Jack rabbit. |
Jack rabbit loping slowly. |
Dove? |
Colorful Grasshopper I've never seen any like this before! |