AUTOMATED OBSERVATORY
JOINT UQ/USQ PROJECT LOCATED AT MOUNT KENT.
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Email: barton@kelvin.physics.uq.edu.au
The Three Observatories at Mt Kent
OVERVIEW
The Automated Observatory is located at Mt Kent, 30 kilometers south of Toowoomba.
The Mt Kent official opening was earlier this year. The following photos detail the
the observatories and the opening ceremony.
Access Road Opening Ceremony
The site consists of three observatories and a facilities (EDG) building.
The Automated Observatory is the octagonal building taht was constructed by James
Hardie Industries. The other two domes are: the Webb Observatory, run by the
University of Southern Queensland (USQ),
housing a Celestron 14 Telescope, and the new Tamborine Observatory, housing a
telescope built by Dr Arthur Page. Both of these domes were constructed by
Mr Colin Blumson (Tel +61 74 467 449).
Robotic Observatory EDG Building
The Automated Observatory houses a Celestron 14 Telescope, with
a mount designed and built at the University of Queensland. Mounted on
the Telescope can be seen the filter wheels (two filter wheels each with
7 filters), a focus controller, and an aperture and instrument
selector, all of which are under computer control.
Telescope Mount Telescope Optical Selector
The Automated Observatory will eventually become a Remote Access
Automated Observatory, that is, an observatory at a remote location that houses
a robotic telescope designed to operate automatically. The telescope is
capable of performing many tasks without interference from the astronomers:
observation scheduling, locating and centering stars, data reduction as well
as weather monitoring, data reduction and file transfer. This requires
extensive processing power hence the use of three 486 PCs. The tasks
of each of these computers can be broken down as follows:
PC1 - Controls the movement of the telescope
PC2 - Controls the execution of a night's observing program as well as the data acquisition.
PC3 - Controls the dome and weather station.
Desk and PCs
The Automated Observatory obeys the Automated Telescope Instruction
Set (ATIS) commands, and will eventually be connected to the internet. It is
hoped that the observatory will become part of a Global Network of Automated
Telescopes (GNAT).
Side of Pier Shutters
Code to Select the Next Group
Since the machine PC2 controls the execution of the ATIS commands,
this is the machine that controls the operation of the observatory. For each
move request the new location is sent to PC1, to move the telescope, and to PC3,
to rotate the building.
Software Flow Diagram
Movement of the telescope as well as filter wheels and optical selector
is performed using stepper motors and the stepper motor controllers. These were
built by the University of Queensland Electronic Workshop and the tireless efforts
of Mr Keith Bell and can be seen underneath the desk in the above pictures.
Hardware Flow Diagram
Matthew Barton
PhD Student
Department of Physics
The University of Queensland
St. Lucia, Brisbane, 4072.
Click to send Email: barton@kelvin.physics.uq.edu.au
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