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1.
June 14, 2003. The
beginning of the Orion Institute's observatory at Rainbow's End
at Russ & Cheryl's home at Santa Margarita Lake. The entire
patio and parking area was recently built-up with a retaining wall, so
excavation for the telescope pier should be straight forward. |
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2.
June 14, 2003.
The telescope will be located at this end, nearest the patio bricks.
Eventually Russ will install an enclosure over the scope for full
automatic, robotic operation. |
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3.
June 14, 2003. The much anticipated moment has arrived. Russ
prepares to start the excavation as Tom Smith and Dennis Pack
witness this historic occasion while sitting in the patio chairs under the
umbrella's shade, with drinks in hand, giving Russ all kinds of directions
and pointers. :-) |
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4. June 14, 2003.
Russ would have none of that lolleygagging. So, Tom (left of
Russ) and Dennis (right of Russ) get into the action. |
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5. June 14, 2003.
Tom takes a break from playing in the new hole. It is awfully hard
to accomplish an excavation with people jumping in the hole when they get
a chance. But then that is the joy of preparing to install a
telescope pier. You've just got to get the gopher-view at least
once. |
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6. June 14, 2003.
I don't know .... it seems they take breaks every chance they get.
:-) The section of pipe on the left is the lower portion of the pier
to be embedded in concrete. The section on the right will eventually
be bolted onto the bottom section. Hey gang .... time to get back to
work! You're burnin daylight! Now Tom has the right idea,
sittin on the job! |
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7. June 14, 2003.
The lower section of pier is in place, awaiting concrete placement in a
few days. |
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8. June 14, 2003.
Russ, Dennis and Tom take a well deserved break. Hummmmm .... Dennis
looks a little scraggly in the beard. In his anxiousness to get to
work on the pier today, he forgot the razor. |
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9. June 14, 2003.
Work is complete for the day. It's "Miller Time"! Russ relaxes
in his easy chair discussing the day's progress and expressing pleasure to
Tom and Dennis at a good day's work being completed. Can't wait for
concrete to arrive. |
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10. June
28, 2003. Top section of the pier is bolted in place. |
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11.
December 13, 2003. Heavy winter conditions descend on California's
Central Coast. A bone-chilling 70 degrees! Just about time for
a parka and insulated boots and gloves. :-) Russ
works intently on his world's smallest, immovable observatory. Not
only is he handy with robotic telescopes, he appears to know something
about carpentry! Jack of all trades. |
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12.
December 13, 2003. Hummm ... Russ notices that his observatory will
be a significant head-whacker. Not to worry! Russ' experience
in all things robotic has that figured out. The entire roof will
hinge on the down-slope side and tilt back, under power, out of the way! |
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13.
December 13, 2003. Definitely a real "cute" observatory,
not a descriptive word you hear much of regarding observatories. Not
exactly on the scale of the Keck scopes in Hawaii or the Magellan scopes
in Chile, but most certainly a monumental installation for Santa
Margarita! Is the multimillion $ Rainbow's End Science Center next
on the drawing board? |
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14.
December 13, 2003. Russ holds the ceremonial hammer for this progress photo.
Russ is very anxious to get his scope trained on eclipsing binary stars to
find more extrasolar planets, working in tandem with Tom Smith's Dark
Ridge Observatory West in Atascadero. |
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15.
February 15, 2004. Excellent progress. Getting close to
observational work. Those eclipsing binaries are barking for
attention by the CCAS Extrasolar Planetary Discovery Team. I know
Russ is chomping at the bit to start recording some data for Ray
Weymann to process on his new computer which is now operational in
support of the team's work. |
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16.
February 15, 2004. What a compact observatory. Certainly no
competition for Hawaii's Keck or Chile's Las Campanas observatories, but
is a strong contender for the world's smallest robotic observatory. |
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17.
February 15, 2004. They say "Good things come in small
packages". Take a look below for the "good things". |
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18.
February 15, 2004. Seeing such a massive mechanism makes a person
wonder if maybe there needs to be a loud alarm horn and flashing lights
when the roof mechanism operates. SAFETY is the No. 1 priority
in all of life! |
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19.
February 15, 2004. Russ and his Meade. Hey! Looks like
another telescope mounted on top of it .... Russ really likes to have a
good finder scope! |
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20.
February 15, 2004. The business-end of the operation. All
controlled from the comfort of Russ's astro library / control room about
ten feet away in his home. Full robotic operation still
remains to be completed. A key partner in helping set up Russ'
operation is Tom Smith, who also has a nice home observatory. |
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21.
March 20, 2004. The business-end of Russ' powered tilt-back roof
that is counterbalanced by a heavy weight system. |
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22.
March 20, 2004. The roof can tilt all the way back to rest against
the hand railing if so desired. |
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23.
March 20, 2004. This must be one of the world's smallest, most
compact robotic observatories. With an SBIG CCD camera attached,
Russ is preparing for his first eclipsing binary imaging session. |
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24. March 20, 2004.
Russ and Tom Smith collaborate on getting the observatory ready for
operation. Russ' Orion Institute Observatory and Tom's Dark
Ridge Observatory West will combine forces to help NASA's and
SETI's Kepler Space Telescope team determine which star systems in Cygnus
to study for possible extrasolar planets. |
