| Observatory
27 41 24 North - 82 43 42 West |
amateur
astronomy |
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My backyard observatory is located on a small island called Tierra Verde, on the southern-most tip of Pinellas county, Florida. Although there is a significant amount of light pollution from Pinellas county and the city of St. Petersburg, I enjoy relatively dark skies towards the west and south west in the direction of the Gulf of Mexico. As you can see from the photo, the large amount of water surrounding the island makes for good seeing conditions, especially in the summer months, when the Gulf sea breeze is in place every evening. The backyard observatory is located on the western-most part of the island (right), and towards the center - very close to the water |
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Observations and imaging take place on the North
side of the backyard. I had a deck built of the same brick pavers that are used
on the pool deck. A Lessuer pier was installed on a concrete footer. The pier is covered with a custom cover made by one of our local boat canvas companies. Another cover was made that covers the telescopes while on the pier when they are left outside in periods of good weather. |
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This is the scope and
equipment cart all setup for the night's imaging session. The bottom
drawer of the cart has two cigarette lighter type 12-volt outlets that
power the scope and dew heater. There is a permanently wired power
supply inside the drawer.
The screen enclosure in the background limits the view to the South to objects higher than 24 degrees. At this latitude this translates to nothing lower than about M7 in mid June. |
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Here the scope is set up for a night of wide field imaging using a Nikon 180mm ED lens piggybacked on the NexStar 11 GPS. |
