The New Morning Star Observatory
Our new location in the Potomac Highlands of West Virginia is blessed with dark, open views of the night sky. The property is 1800 - 1900 feet in elevation and approximately 35 miles as the crow flies from the closest sizable light domes to the East at Winchester, VA and along I-81. Fortunately there's a couple of mountains between here and the Shenandoah Valley to help block the light pollution. My other issue is aircraft traffic passing overhead on the way into and out of the airport in Washington, DC.
Oh, there is one other "small" issue here, black bears. We are frequented by roving bears so I have to exercise an extra bit of caution while observing in the open. Heck, I have to be cautious even on my porch at night. They'll come right up on it. Some of them are fairly good size critters and I don't to find myself staring nose-to-nose with one.
I finally found my SQM-L meter that's been packed away for the last two years and took some readings on Christmas night. At 9:15 PM on this clear, moonless Christmas evening my SQM readings averaged 21.39 with the winter Milky Way high overhead.
I had originally hoped to have the new observatory building and dome erected in 2018, but unforeseen complications building our log home prevented it. Now 2020 is around the corner and the home is livable (notice I didn't say finished) so I can finally divert some resources to the observatory.
Oh, there is one other "small" issue here, black bears. We are frequented by roving bears so I have to exercise an extra bit of caution while observing in the open. Heck, I have to be cautious even on my porch at night. They'll come right up on it. Some of them are fairly good size critters and I don't to find myself staring nose-to-nose with one.
I finally found my SQM-L meter that's been packed away for the last two years and took some readings on Christmas night. At 9:15 PM on this clear, moonless Christmas evening my SQM readings averaged 21.39 with the winter Milky Way high overhead.
I had originally hoped to have the new observatory building and dome erected in 2018, but unforeseen complications building our log home prevented it. Now 2020 is around the corner and the home is livable (notice I didn't say finished) so I can finally divert some resources to the observatory.
The plan was to construct a round building for the 12.5-foot Lancaster dome, automate most of the observatory, and place the computer workspace in a room in my garage about 100-feet from the dome (to save some expense on the size of the obs). But this would require a way to extend USB connectivity for the cameras and other equipment between the two buildings. After researching the currently available USB over Ethernet options it looks like it will actually be cheaper and more reliable to just add a warm room to the obs.
Once the design is finalized the first construction hurdle is getting a backhoe on site to dig footers for the building and a hole for the pier. The top soil on site is only a few inches deep and then its layers of rock. Not going to dig that by hand like I did on the last obs.
Once the design is finalized the first construction hurdle is getting a backhoe on site to dig footers for the building and a hole for the pier. The top soil on site is only a few inches deep and then its layers of rock. Not going to dig that by hand like I did on the last obs.
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We are about a 2-1/2 hours drive from Washington, DC, and over 60 miles flying distance from Dulles airport, and we still can't escape all the negative effects of "civilization". This is a shot of a morning sky at the new location. Look at all those contrails heading west. It appears we're under flight paths in and out of Dulles. Seems like they never stop so I'm thankful that image processing can help remove jet trails during stacking. I think I'm going to need it.
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Setting up the Network
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My old HP dual-core Athlon obs computer was just too old and slow so I searched all the Black Friday deals online for an affordable replacement and settled on a refurbished HP Z420 workstation advertised with a 6-core, 12-thread 2.5GHz Xeon processor, 32GB of RAM and a 2TB HDD for just $300. I was pleasantly surprised when I received a Z420 with an 8-core, 16-thread 2.6GHz Xeon at no extra charge. I only needed to add a 240GB SSD ($30) for the OS and the HP serial port option ($5) to have a "real" serial port for the EQ-8 mount.
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It already has the no-tools case, extra case fans and ducting for improved cooling, a dual-port DVI video card, USB 3.0 ports, and a 600-watt PS. For the OS I installed Linux Mint 19 and now I'm adding all the Astronomy related programs including K-Stars, Ekos, INDI, INDI-EQMOD, and Star Tools.
I picked up the dual Dell 23" monitors and stand for cheap at a store that sells estate items, and they are a great match for the workstation. The keyboard came from Saitek and has red backlit keys for dark adaptation.
I picked up the dual Dell 23" monitors and stand for cheap at a store that sells estate items, and they are a great match for the workstation. The keyboard came from Saitek and has red backlit keys for dark adaptation.
New page created 12/20/2019
Last update 1/7/2020
Last update 1/7/2020
