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