{"id":2,"date":"2009-02-07T06:30:24","date_gmt":"2009-02-07T14:30:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jazzistentialism.com\/blog\/?page_id=2"},"modified":"2017-10-07T20:33:01","modified_gmt":"2017-10-08T04:33:01","slug":"about","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/jazzistentialism.com\/blog\/?page_id=2","title":{"rendered":"Shenton Park Observatory"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"paramount-me\"<\/p>\n

Shenton Park Observatory (SPO) is a privately owned observatory in Western Australia. From 2005 to 2008 it hosted Tenagra Western Australia, an automated supernovae<\/a>\u00a0and minor planet hunting collaboration with Tenagra Observatories<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The telescope netted 11 supernova discoveries<\/a> as well as a number of minor planet recoveries<\/a> during this time, and continues to undertake research\u00a0activities. In recent times, SPO has been involved in producing publishable spectra and is now primarily a spectroscopic instrument.<\/p>\n

History<\/strong><\/p>\n

The site located in Perth, Western Australia, was established in 2001, and originally utlised a computerised 10″ Schmidt Cassegrain through which much of the\u00a0Astrophotography<\/a> currently on this site was achieved. In late 2003, the Sirius observatory was installed to permanently house the equipment. Motorised dome rotation was added in early 2005 to futher streamline unattended imaging. In mid 2005, dome shutter automation and weather monitoring were installed as part of a package to house new equipment in a cooperative supernovae hunting project with\u00a0Tenagra Observatories.<\/p>\n

During course of the Tenagra collaboration the dome and telescope performed flawlessly with over 100,000 slews in 3 years, imaging thousands of galaxies and resulting in 11\u00a0discoveries. Following this, a campaign of minor planet work was undertaken in collaboration with Paulo Holvorcem in Brazil, netting 3 main belt discoveries and dozens of NEO recoveries and confirmations. In recent times the instrument has been used to acquire publishable photometric and spectroscopic data. A summary of published observations can be\u00a0found here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Complete automation has allowed the system to run safely unattended throughout the night in varying weather conditions, and has become a model for the SPIRIT<\/a> initiative at The University of Western Australia. The imaging system and telescope have undergone changes over the years, including the addition of a 14″\u00a0Ritchey-Chr\u00e9tien in 2012 and a Shelyak Lhires III\u00a0spectroscope in 2014.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"DSCF4088\"<\/a>

Shelyak Lhires III specroscope with integrated USB hub<\/p><\/div>\n

\"FSQ85\"<\/a>

Shelyak Alpy 600 low resolution spectrograph mounted to Takahashi FSQ-85 refractor<\/p><\/div>\n

\"IMG_1813\"<\/a>

Both the Shelyak Lhires III and Alpy spectrographs mounted to optical manifold on main telescope. Additional photometric camera (ST-10XEI) just visible at bottom left.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Screen<\/a>

A screen shot of the observatory PC during image acquisition. ‘TheSkyX’ telescope and target control view\u00a0includes autoguider status (centre windows) and\u00a0a video feed of the target on the slit (right most window).<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Screen<\/a>

The ‘MaxIM DL’ camera control view\u00a0shows the last spectral image (the symbiotic star ‘RW Hya’) and ‘CCD Commander’ –\u00a0used for sequence automation.<\/p><\/div>\n

Other equipment links:<\/p>\n