Welcome to Morning Star Observatory |
N 39.05° | W 78.74°
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Morning Star Observatory (MSO) is now located in the Potomac Highlands of West Virginia. The old observatory in Virginia was dismantled in late 2017 and all my equipment packed and stored away, awaiting the completion of the new observatory building. l hoped to have the new obs built in 2019 but I have too much yet to do on the log home and the obs has had to take a back seat. We can finally see some daylight at the end of the tunnel and as soon as we are ready for winter I can start work on the dome and new control systems. So 2020 should be a good year.
Some first steps have been done on the Lancaster dome, trying to sort out what goes where. Since I don't have a real assembly manual for it, It's a bit like trying to assemble a jigsaw puzzle without the picture. I am also migrating away from Window-based computers and will be running the new obs on Linux. The only piece of the puzzle I am missing is a replacement dome driver for Lesvedome. If I have to I will write one myself. It's been years since I've written any code but I am going to get off of Windows one way or another. This winter I will set up or mock up the equipment for the obs and test all the Linux components so they're ready when the dome goes up. My plans for the new observatory include visual observing and CCD imaging, and possibly some community outreach. When completed the dome will house my Orion HDX110 EQ-G GEM mount and Celestron C-11 SCT. Also an Astro-Tech AT6RC astrograph for imaging and, of course, a piggybacked guide scope with camera. The current imaging cameras are my modified Orion StarShoot Pro one-shot color camera and a QSI 683 mono camera I acquired. I also picked up a ZWO CMOS mono camera for autoguiding and possibly planetary imaging. |
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I became interested in astronomy when I was about 8 years old. On July 20, 1963 there was a total solar eclipse across North America. My parents had given me a small Sears refractor telescope for Christmas which I set up to project the eclipse on a screen for everyone to see. Where I lived it was a 70% eclipse and as the skies darkened it made such an impression that over 50 years later I still remember the day.
I also have several other hobbies, not related to astronomy, so there are pages here relating to those. And, of course, there are pages showing our progress on the log home that has occupied my every waking minute for nearly two years.
And lastly, we finally have high speed fiber optic Internet service installed here on the homestead, so no more problems updating my pages.
And lastly, we finally have high speed fiber optic Internet service installed here on the homestead, so no more problems updating my pages.
The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork... Psalm 19:1
The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork... Psalm 19:1
Disclaimer: The information contained on this and related pages is believed to be accurate, but no guarantees are expressed or implied. Any information on these pages should be considered "as-is" and the reader is completely responsible for the way it is used.
Copyright © 2011-19 Stephen Statts, All Rights Reserved
(Last update 9/7/2019)
(Last update 9/7/2019)
