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

Currently is home to several instruments available for education and research:

CDK20 North A 20-inch, 0.5 meter, corrected Dall-Kikham telescope on a German equatorial mounting.

FSQ A Takahashi 4.2-inch, 106 mm diameter, wide field imaging apochromatic refractor on a SoftwareBisque Paramount.

Nikon A fast f/1.4 wide field color camera co-mounted with the FSQ. The FSQ and the Nikon systems will soon be combined with a higher resolution live video feed of planets.

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

Meade 16 A 16-inch, 0.4-meter diameter, Schmidt-Cassegrain on an equatorial fork mounting. This telescope will soon move to the Louisville Astronomical Society's Urban Astronomy Center in nearby Tom Sawyer State Park.

RC24 A 24-inch, 0.6 meter diameter, Ritchie-Chretien reflector on an equatorial fork mounting.

Mt. Kent Observatory

Houses two intruments with another soon to come:

CDK20 South A 20-inch, 0.5 meter corrected Dall-Kirkham that is the twin to the telescope at Moore Observatory.

O'Mara A 12-inch, 0.35 meter, Schmidt-Cassegrain on a Paramount that is entirely robotic, and available for remote use by students and the public.

CDK700 A 27-inch, 0.7 meter, corrected Dall-Kirkham telescope will be installed in the refurbished third dome at Mt. Kent in the second quarter of 2010. The telescope will be used for automated time series photometry of stars by advanced students in the astronomy programs of the Universities of Louisville and Southern Queensland.