A few people have asked, quite surprisingly to me, what kind of observatory I was “letting go” from my long-term goals. Most plebes think an observatory is simply a place to put your scope and observe the sky, and while they are not completely wrong, it is much more complicated than a simple “location-based” definition.

So, let’s start with what I have as a scope:

That set-up is made up of nine things:

1. A physical site:
   1. A location to do the viewing, preferably with dark skies (this picture is taken at the inlaws’ cottage in front of a lake and big open skies to the west);
   2. A flat platform for the equipment all to rest upon, along with vibration suppression pads under the tripod legs; and,
   3. Some sort of limited area around the space;
2. Observing mechanics:
   1. An optical tube — the orange part, which is a Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope (SCT) design;
   2. A mount — the small black base with a computer in it and an arm that rises up from just below the tube to attach at the far side of the scope; and,
   3. A tripod — the silver part, with the three legs fully extended;
3. Accessories:
   1. An eyepiece (black with green banding at the top back of the scope);
   2. A power source, which is a portable power tank (this model is very similar to a car battery); and,
   3. A place to hold accessories, which is a flat area just below the black mount, very hard to see in the photo although there is also a table out of range of the camera;

For most observing, the parts are inter-related.  » Read the rest