Christoph Petermann | Homepage |
COAO |
Last Update: 16 March 2001
What is "COAO"
COAO is "Christoph's Open Air Observatory"
Looking for a place where to put a permanent pod for my Astronomy gear, I found a place behind the garage. This place is well shaded from the street lights. Also this place is well shielded from winds.
I had to take in account, that I can only observe everything from zenith to the East. North is limited by a tree at 70 degree, South-East by a house, but South and East are open down to ca 10 degrees Elevation. East is clear, but South is strongly illuminated by streetlights. West is shaded by the garage. I have to take a tripod on the other side of the garage. But there I have my Amateur Radio antennas right in the zenith.
Recently I added Mains 235 V and red light. I have most equipment for Photography on small board, which I can carry out quickly. Complete "mock-up" last about 25 minutes.
On most occasions I use my workhorse the 150 mm f=750 mm Newton telescope with a 8*40 WACHTER finder attached. Additionally a small 80 mm f=400 mm Widefield Refractor for (Auto)guiding purposes can be attached too. On other sessions the small Maksutov f11/1000mm is very quickly assembled and showed good results also on planetary CCD-imaging.
Text and All Images are Copyright by Christoph Petermann DF9CY
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