Telescopes

The Southern Skies project uses the resources of Mt. Kent Observatory in Queensland, Australia, and Moore Observatory in Kentucky, USA. There is similar instrumentation available at both sites. Since they are in opposite hemispheres and have access to the southern and northern skies, there is nearly continuous coverage in time of the sky near the equator, and complete coverage of the sky in the course of a day.

Moore Observatory

Moore Observatory is home to several instruments available for education and research:

CDK20 North A 0.5 meter (20 inch) diameter corrected Dall-Kikham telescope on a German equatorial mounting for remote and automated imaging and polarimetry.

CDK125 North A 0.3 meter (12.5-inch) diameter corrected Dall-Kikham telescope on a SoftwareBisque Paramount providing nightly planetary images and an archive of data selected for quality. The telescope may be scheduled remote users to operate through a browser interface.

Nikon A fast f/1.4 85 mm focal length wide field color camera co-mounted with other other telescopes offering real-time imaging of stars and solar system objects to 15th magnitude.

Wispi A Wide Field Spectral Imager for measuring spectra of comets, nebulae, and airglow.

RC24 A 0.6 meter (24-inch) Ritchie-Chretien reflector on an equatorial fork mounting for precision time series photometry and stellar spectroscopy.

Mt. Kent Observatory

Mt. Kent observatory has two intruments in operation with another soon to come:

CDK20 South A 20-inch, 0.5 meter, corrected Dall-Kirkham twin to the telescope at Moore Observatory. It is used primarily for photometry and color imaging.

O'Mara A 12-inch, 0.30 meter, robotic Schmidt-Cassegrain on a Paramount. It responds robotically to requests from authorized users primarily for education.

CDK700 A 27-inch, 0.7 meter, corrected Dall-Kirkham telescope on a Nasmyth mount. The telescope will be used for automated time series photometry and spectroscopy of stars by advanced students in the astronomy programs of the Universities of Louisville and Southern Queensland. First light in Australia is expected in October 2010 following testing in California in August.