Creation of the Doc Greiner Research Observatory
(A brief story and rationale)
New Update Soon!
In June 2008 the original Greiner Research Observatory had to be closed because of
the loss of the observatory dark site. Plans for a new observatory at a new dark
site were activated immediately. Fortunately, a new and considerably darker site
was found by October and construction started. The observatory was built over the
Fall and Winter of 2008-
This was a very fast recovery for the observatory operation since a suitable rural dark site, high speed communications, utilities and an otherwise safe, accessible site is a difficult combination to put together.
From the very beginning a bold concept was adopted. Because good sky time in Wisconsin is considerably limited it was decided to have an observatory with two piers. One pier and mount would hold the 16 inch SCT scope to be used mainly for the Minor Planet search program. The second pier would hold our imaging telescope. We had a Paramount for the 16 inch SCT and added a second Paramount for the imaging telescope. The observatory building is large enough to easily handle both instruments and several people at the same time.
The 16 inch telescope is a Meade Type T scope, an advanced coma free design, with an SBIG STL 1001 camera and the large, 8 position filter wheel. The SCT is reduced in focal length by 0.75 and further corrected with an Astro Physics reducer. The combination of the telescope focal length and pixel size in the CCD camera is ideal for searching for minor planets in our Wisconsin skies. This issue will be discussed in another part of this web presentation. The new dark site allows us to reach asteroids to Mag20 on a regular basis. Pollution, pass band and three color filters are provided for special research and imaging. The telescope is run by a dedicated computer that is controlled over the internet.
The second pier with its Paramount ME mount carries a TMB 130 mm telescope. This scope is a triplet apochromatic refractor with a TMB field flattener. It is provided with an SBIG STL 11000 camera with the large, 8 position filter wheel. Filters for RGBL imaging and a set of four filters for narrow band imaging are provided. This telescope is also controlled by a dedicated computer which is remotely controlled over the internet.
With both telescopes controlled by their own computers, minor planet searches and imaging can be done simultaneously. This is a great advantage since the limited good sky time can be well utilized by doing two things at the same time,
There is a third computer, also remotely controlled, in the observatory that manages the observatory building. This includes such things as operating the roll off roof, turning on and off fans and lights and other auxiliary devices. The control computer also runs the seeing camera, the weather station and a soon to be installed all sky camera, Additional cameras are on each computer to give various views of the observatory.
All computers can be controlled from one or several distant computers through wireless communications and servicing/control software. Thus any two observers can run either or both telescopes at any one time.
This fall, 2010, our new imaging telescope arrived. It is a 14 /12 inch RG made by RCOS. It is now on the Paramount replacing the TMB. First light was attained in December 2010. The scope with an Apogee ALTA U16 camera and filter wheel is currently producing very nice images. These will be appearing regularly on this site.
At this time both the searching and imaging telescopes are used during almost every clear night. This web site shows some our results in both areas.