Observatory Specifications
Observatory Location and Facilities
Located at The University’s Hunewell Ranch, 8 Miles East of Stephenville, Texas, The Tarleton State University Observatory is a 840 Square Foot Facility with a 20.5 foot (wide slit) Ash Dome
Observatory to Campus Communications
- 180-foot Rohn 45G Tower
- Cyclone Microwave Transceiver – 24-inch Dish, 5.7 GHz Spread Spectrum, 11mbs Data Rate
Construction Completed – February, 2006
Telescope Fully Operational – April, 2006
Telescope
- The Telescope is a Fully Robotic 32-inch (0.8m) f/9 Research-Grade Ritchey-Chretien
- Manufactured and Installed by Astronomical Consultants and Equipment, Inc. (ACE)
- Piggybacked 6-inch Takahashi refractor
Telescope Control and Data Acquisition
Telescope Control and Data Acquisition Can Be Performed From Three Locations
- Observatory Control Room,
- Campus Control Room (mirror site of the observatory control room)
- PC via the Internet
Observatory and Campus Control Rooms have
- 3 high end PC computers with Microsoft Windows XP
- Telescope Control
- Image Acquisition
- Astronomy Software and Applications
- Software
- ACE Robotic Telescope Control and Data Acquisition Software
- Ash Dome SmartDome Control
- Maxim-DL and Mira Pro Data Acquisition and Image Processing
Instrumentation
- Equipped for Photometry
- Fingerlake CCD Camera (IMG42-40 2048x2048 /13.5 um pixels/ 100,000e) 50 second download time
- Fingerlake Maxcam Guide CCD camera (CM9-1E 512x512/ 9 um pixels/500,000e)
- Custom Scientific Research Grade U, B, V, R, I, ND and H-alpha filters
- ACE Dual Filter Wheel, X-Stage Finder Guider
Telescope Funding
- $500K DOE FIPSE Grant Optical Observatory for Tarleton State University Astronomy and Research Center
- $145K Tarleton State University Building Fund
- Plus Additional DOE FIPSE Grant Money From Center for Astronomy Research and Education