HYDE OBSERVATORY'S NEW TELESCOPE The Celestron NexStar 11GPS XLT Schmidt-Cassegrain - Dave Knisely

After several months of waiting, the observatory's new NexStar 11 inch f/10 Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope is up and running on the observing deck at Hyde. This is the first of a few major steps Hyde is taking towards the future of the facility. The telescope saw its first public use on Saturday April 16th to rave reviews, providing spectacular views of the moon, Saturn, Jupiter, and a number of double stars and deep-sky objects. Even the "Human Go-To" (Joey Churilla) was impressed with how the scope worked. The instrument is a fully equipped electrically slewed and pointed system, which can operate, in a full Go-To mode to slew and point itself to almost any object we desire. The telescope is also mounted on a telescoping Pier Tech electrical pier, which can raise the scope to a convenient height with just a push of a button. It can go from a low "wheelchair-accessible" position to a high point where it can almost look over the edge of the deck walls. In addition, we can remotely control the telescope via a laptop computer for additional flexibility, and the instrument will eventually be the heart of imaging systems like CCD cameras and video feeds back into the main lecture hall. This new scope is just one reason why club members should at least think about getting involved with helping out at Hyde.

Installation took a while, as on April 2nd, a crew headed by Club President Ron Veys had to remove the old 12 inch Newtonian and drill new anchor holes for the Pier Tech adjustable pier. However, for some reason the pier did not want to go up and down. The following Wednesday evening, Brian Sivill ("We'll fix this thing!"), Lee Taylor ("My flash doesn't work!"), and I got down to the business of installing the scope. After an inspection of the pier, we didn't see anything significant, so I fired up Hyde's computer and got Pier Tech's phone number. Brian called it, and surprisingly, he got a hold of the guy who builds the piers (this was about 7:30 p.m.). He gave us instructions on how to take the pier apart to examine things, and indicated that a disconnected internal cable might be the problem. When we got the ends off and pulled out the guts of the pier, it was sadly obvious as to what the problem really was. The interior "motor control box" was damaged, probably from a shipping accident. One large side section of the box's plastic housing was completely broken out, and one of the connectors was disconnected. The control box contains the unit's PC board and a large toroidal transformer about the size of a softball, which was now sort of "floating" free inside the box (it appears to have been originally glued or mounted to the side of the interior of the control box). Brian managed to secure the transformer back into a stable position in the box with many windings of electrical tape (it is *not* going anywhere and is well insulated), as well as inspecting, reconnecting, and properly tie-wrapping all the cables. The PC board looked intact and I tested the fuse and found it to be OK, so Brian reassembled the interior parts and put power to the drive system before we reinstalled it in the pier. The pier's drive mechanism is a long motor-driven helical screw, and we were very relieved to see it move when we hit the hand controller button! Brian and I put the guts back into their proper location in the pier and we bolted it back down to the floor. At last, the pier moved smoothly up and down over its entire movement range with no problems.

After a lot of grunting, moving, lifting, and an extended discussion of how the azimuth lock and power switch should be oriented, we got the APT wedge and the NexStar telescope itself properly mounted on the pier. It took us from about 6:30 p.m. to around 9 p.m. before things were about ready for final testing, and we even got lucky in that the sky got just clear enough to roll the roof and test things out with our "First Light" ceremony. After a quick trip to Runza for a break and a bite to eat (Astronomers get *really* hungry when installing scopes), first light occurred at about 9:30 p.m. and the first light target was Capella (and the second light target, and the third light target, until we finally got the equatorial alignment to behave itself). We got the wedge polar aligned, and everything is now pretty much ready for use. However, the telescope is designed to be only operated electrically, so it may only be run by properly trained staff. If you wish to help with Hyde, now is the time. Contact Dave Churilla and he will see that you get the training you may need.