Greetings stargazers and fans of Taylor Observatory.
Here is an update of what’s happening at Taylor.
1. LX-200 repair and upgrades
–– Christopher Erickson of Summit Kinetics in Hawaii arrived Tuesday, March 27th, to work on the LX-200/16 scope and has been at work correcting problems since then. Summary of key points:
— Optics in scope look good to excellent. Our problems with poor star resolution etc were probably due to the design issues (not uncommon) in the dome which result in serious temperture gradients which distort the images. Recommendations will be made.
— Mechanical problems. There were many mechanical issues with the scope drive which ultimately caused the Right Ascension drive system to fail. These are all being addressed by Chris. One electronic board needs to be replaced; the RA drive motor is fine.
— Status of Meade telescopes: Chris believes that Meade is on a satisfactory recovery process from past periods of financial difficulty. Possible, but not certain, that our LX-200 was purchased at a time when Meade was rushing scopes out the door too quickly. Thus quality control may not have been good.
2. Observatory Assistant position
The part-time Observatory Assistant position goes to Mr. Angelo Parisi; apparently at large number of applicatants. All good news for us. Please congratulate and Welcome Mr. Parisi to the Lake County Office of Education Team.
3. We will be having two Open Houses in April and May.
Taylor Observatory was chosen by the NISE to host Explore Science Earth&Space exhibit. The Explore Science: Earth & Space project is led by Arizona State University, in collaboration with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Explore Science: Earth & Space toolkits are developed and distributed nationwide by the National Informal STEM Education Network (NISE Net). Throughout spring and summer of 2019, events are taking place at 350 museums and institutions throughout the country.
We will host an Explore Science Open House on April 20th in English and again on May 11th in Spanish. Please see more about this in our Event Calendar.
Questions? Phone us at 707 262-4121 or send an email to friendsoftaylor@gmail.com
Keep in touch by visiting our Facebook page “Friends of Taylor Observatory” .
FOTO is a 501 c 3 CA Corporation
FOTO’s primary goal is fundraising. Typically, planetarium shows cost $3,000-$5,000. When we bring in an expert from outside the Northern California, there are expenses. Donations are thus always welcome, with the reminder that our primary mission is to provide an outstanding educational observatory resource for Lake County’s K-12 students. Last year, we adopted the new policy that Lake County K-12 students have free admission to monthly Windows events.