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The RD-1 robotic scope uploaded 3 hours of live images to the website, seeing was poor and increasing cloud cover ended the session earlier than planned. We manually edited the scope live webpage so visitors would know if we were online or offline, we are still looking into options for automating this notification, and for uploading current viewing information. |
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An issue retrieving data for the atlantic and pacific tropical storm outlooks have been identified and corrected. |
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The RD-1 robotic telescope uploaded 2 hours of live images to the website until clouds rolled in. We are looking into an efficient way to upload status messages to the scope live page when the scope is in session to alert visitors of on/off status and weather conditions or problems. |
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The Rd-1 robotic telescope uploaded 4 hours of live images to the website. Testing and modifications continue on the RD-1 |
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The Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc Monthly Star Night was cancelled due to weather |
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We had the first night of live update testing, the tests went well, but we are are have determined we need another capture card with pass thru for better performance. We are seeing occasional system freezes associated with the current video configuration, we are monitoring to determine the best resolution. The alignment is getting closer. |
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We found another software package for uploading live images to the web site. We have downloaded a demo and after working out some upload issues, the software has re-enabled the scope live updates on a test basis. |
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We have begun testing a sftp upload scheduler utility that may solve our issue of getting the live images back on the website. Preliminary testing is going well so far. |
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We discovered a minor problem with the north/south adjustment assembly for the wedge in the RD1. It is currently making it difficult to make fine north/south adjustments. We will take a look at it in the daylight to determine our options. Despite the minor problems the alignment slowly progresses. |
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The Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc Held it's Monthly Meeting at the Observatory. |
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The weather has made wedge adjustments in the RD1 progress slowly, we have only had a few clear nights in the past week. We are getting closer, the latitude is very close now and we have been capturing video of seep sky objects that we will use at a later date for image processing. We are only making one or two adjustments an evening to the wedge, this makes the alignment progress look slower than it is actually. We have been taking advantage of the few good nights to spend most of it observing. |
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Weather permitted the first steps of polar aligning the wedge in the RD1. The new adjustment rod is working perfectly. It is a challenge polar aligning a wedge without being able to look through a viewfinder or the scope directly. We are taking our time with the alignment. |
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The Observatory setup it's 12" scope during the Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc's monthly |
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It was confirmed that a bug did exist and has been fixed in the Weather Watcher for ACP plugin. The software is now working perfectly with the custom daily.txt file created by the primary weather station. |
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The rework of the Dec adjustment rod is complete, the assembly was put back into the wedge today. The sky is overcast so we will have to wait for another evening to redo the polar alignment. |
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We removed the old Dec angle adjustment knob from the scope's wedge today and began reworking it by refitting it with a 12-20 fine thread rod. The original 5/16" bolt with a three wing plastic know was not sufficient to adjust the dec angle on the wedge considering the weight of the 10" scope. |
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Today we installed the first set of replacement power plugs in the robotic dome. In the coming months we will eventually replace all of the old "cigarette lighter" style plugs. |
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We scripted and implemented the automatic creation and retrieval of a "daily.txt" file so we can take advantage of the software plugin for ACP called "weather watcher for ACP" this module allows the retrieval of the current weather conditions so ACP can shutdown the dome should bad weather conditions prevail. We have found one potential bug in the software and are waiting for the developer to return from vacation to investigate. |
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The Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc Held it's Monthly Meeting at the Observatory. |
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We installed an aluminum access panel in the side or the robotic dome today. This will give us better access to the polar wedge adjustments. |
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The scope was returned to the robodome today and in dome testing has begun. The dome requires re-calibration with the scope after software upgrades have completed. Initial testing of the scope looks good. |
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The Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc Monthly Star Night was cancelled due to weather. |
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We took advantage of the scope being out of the dome and cleaned the objective lens which had 5 years of dust accumulation. The rechargeable battery in the weather module receiver in the RD1 had failed, a new battery was installed. The weather module is back online. The scope has been working all week on the test bench, weather permitting we will re-install it back into the RD1 tomorrow. |
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The Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc Held it's Annual Business Meeting at the Observatory. |
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We setup a make shift test bench for the LX200 scope and we were able to repair the RA runaway issue. We will test the scope for the remainder of the week to make sure no issues appear. |
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We removed the scope from the RD1 today and began examination of the scope. |
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We began reconnecting and testing dome hardware to the new computer. we found that the gears in the focus motor are slipping. When we attempted to power up the LX200 scope, we experienced the dreaded RA motor runaway. The scope will have to be removed for repairs |
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The new dome computer was installed into the RD1 dome today, during the process we discovered that one of our charging regulators on the DC circuit has blown, this has resulted in noise in the DC line and a reduced charge rate. We will order replacement components. |
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The Observatory's planned solar viewing session during Stow's Springfest celebration was cancelled today due to rain. |
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The Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc Star Night was cancelled due to weather |
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The New dome computer was assembled over the weekend, the new computer is twice as fast as the old, more memory, larger, faster hard drive and all the com ports have been built into the computer so we can eliminate the three external USB to serial adaptors. The 802.11b wireless adaptor was upgraded to 802.11g for better performance. |
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It was determined that there was more wrong with the dome computer than just the hard drive. The IDE controller chip on the motherboard has failed as well. A replacement board could not be found that would fit the case, so parts were ordered to build a new dome computer. |
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The base of the RD-1 has been re-calked as leaking had begun in the battery compartment due to deterioration of the old calking. |
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Work finally began on the long postponed overhaul of the RD1 robotic dome. The hard drive in the dome computer has appeared to fail. The computer has been removed for servicing. |
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The Observatory staff attended the North East Astro Imaging conference and North East Astronomy Forum in Suffern, NY |
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The observatory hosted the Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc annual Messier star party and Pot Luck dinner. The observatory setup solar scopes, but clouds late in the day prevented evening star gazing. The SAS held it's monthly meeting as well.. |
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The Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc Held it's Monthly Star Night at the Observatory. |
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The Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc Held it's Monthly Meeting at the Observatory. |
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Today is the fifth anniversary of the Rockbottom Observatory website. |
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The Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc Star Night was cancelled due to weather |
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The Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc Held it's Monthly Meeting at the Observatory. |
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The Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc Star Night was cancelled due to weather |
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The Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc Held it's Monthly Meeting at the Observatory. Guest Lecturer was Harold Coyle from the Center for Astrophysics |
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The Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc star night was cancelled due to weather |
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We have been catching up on the new year observatory updates, recent work parties to cut and split wood have put us behind. |
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Last work party to stack fire wood that we cut and split. Thanks to everyone that helped at these work parties. |
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Another work party was held at the Observatory to stack the wood we recently split. |
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Another work party was held at the Observatory to split the last of the firewood and stack it. |
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Another work party was held at the Observatory to stack the wood we recently split. |
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The Rockbottom Observatory presented a lecture on meteorites at the Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc monthly Meeting |
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The Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc Held it's Monthly Meeting at the Observatory. |
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The Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc Monthly Star Night at the Observatory was cancelled due to weather. |
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A work Party was held to cut up and haul a large amount of firewood that was donated to the observatory to help reduce the heating costs. |
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The Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc Held it's Monthly Meeting at the Observatory. |
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The two aging exterior oil tanks were replaced with a single new exterior oil tank. |
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The Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc Monthly Star Night at the Observatory was cancelled due to weather. |
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The Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc Held it's Monthly Meeting at the Observatory. |
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The Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc Monthly Star Night at the Observatory was cancelled due to weather. |
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The Rockbottom Observatory participated in the Skylight Astronomical Society Inc's Shelburne Farm Public Star Watch |
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The Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc Held it's Monthly Meeting at the Observatory. |
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The Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc Held it's Monthly Star Night at the Observatory. |
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The Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc Held it's Monthly Meeting at the Observatory. |
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The Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc Monthly Star Night at the Observatory was cancelled due to weather. |
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The Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc Held it's Monthly Meeting at the Observatory. |
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The Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc Held it's Monthly Meeting at the Observatory. |
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The Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc Held it's Monthly Star Night at the Observatory. |
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The Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc Held it's Monthly Meeting and Star Night at the Observatory. |
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The Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc Held it's Monthly Meeting and Star Night at the Observatory. |
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The Observatory recycled some old computer equipment at a local food pantry fund raiser. |
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A bug in the weather station software was identified and fixed for the Month to Date all time records. |
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The Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc Held it's Monthly Meeting and Star Night at the Observatory. |
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Today is the fourth anniversary of the Rockbottom Observatory website. |
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The Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc Held it's Monthly Meeting and Star Night at the Observatory. |
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The bandwidth had been doubled at the Observatory. This will provide better service of features over the web. |
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The Observatory has added WXSIM weather forecasting software to the observatory. We hope to begin publishing short term forecasts on the website in the coming months. |
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Software updates were made to the weather station software to provide more functionality and features. |
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The Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc Held it's Monthly Meeting at the Observatory. |
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The Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc held it's Monthly star night. The Observatory setup the 12" SCT |
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The Bug in the weather software has been corrected. |
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The event calendar script was updated to provide increased functionality and ease of maintenance. Among improvements, visitors will now be able to submit their events for review directly from the event calendar. |
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A bug in the Weather Display Software at the observatory caused an interruption in weather station Uploads. The Manufacturer is looking into the issue. All the missing data was recovered from the weather station. |
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The Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc Held it's Monthly Meeting at the Observatory. |
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The Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc's Monthly Star Night was cancelled due to Weather. |
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We are having some occasional issues with our forecast data from the NOAA not being current, it has only occurred a couple of times. We have been waiting for the next release of hamweather software which should contain an option for a backup feed for the data. These current feed issues are the first we've seen in three years. |
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The UV and Solar sensors were installed today, a couple of trees affect the sensors during the afternoon hours. Looking into options around the trees. |
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A decision was made to upgrade the Davis weather monitor II weather station to a Davis Vantage Pro2 weather station so we could ad solar and UV sensors to the weather station. The upgrade went smoothly. |
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The Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc's held it's monthly star night at the observatory. |
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The foot bridge has been completed and an
opening ceremony was held after the SAS Meeting. The skylight Astronomical Society, Inc held it's monthly meeting at the Observatory. |
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The rain date for the Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc Streetside Skywatch at the Stow Upper Common Has been cancelled due to weather. |
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The Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc Streetside Skywatch at the Stow Upper Common Has been cancelled due to weather. |
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The Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc's monthly star night was cancelled due to weather. |
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The skylight Astronomical Society, Inc held it's monthly meeting at the Observatory. |
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Modifications to the weather page and new features are continuing to be added. |
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The Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc's monthly star night was cancelled due to weather. |
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The skylight Astronomical Society, Inc held it's monthly meeting at the Observatory. |
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The Beta Draught of the Weather page has been uploaded to the website. It will be customized and adjusted over the next few weeks. We are looking for feedback from our visitors. |
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The Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc Streetside Skywatch at the Stow Upper Common Has been cancelled due to weather. |
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We have inputted all of 2005 weather data into weather display and have updated the year to date rain totals, and monthly averages/extremes pages. |
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Work on the foot bridge continues, we hope to have it completed before the fall. |
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We have found a way to manually input the data from the old weather station dating back to 2002. We expect the process to take a couple of months to complete. |
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We have started on the new design layout of the weather page, until then, we will continue using the customized "stock" page from the Weather Display software. |
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A memory leak in the current version of Weather Display has been causing intermittent shutdowns. We have installed a utility called auto restart that monitors the weather display software and restarts it within seconds of a crash. |
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The Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc's monthly star night was cancelled due to weather. |
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The skylight Astronomical Society, Inc held it's monthly meeting at the Observatory. |
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We have decided to purchase the Weather Display software for the new weather station. We are finalizing our initial layout of the new weather page using the software's template. We will customize our our templates at a later date as we decide on a final format. |
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The humidity sensor arrived and has been installed. We are now back online with a full set of sensors. The anemometer is working after changing the wind cups and making a few adjustments. |
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We are now testing the functionality of a weather software package called Weather Display. This software has a wide range of functionality. |
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The Davis Weather Monitor II console arrived and was installed. We now have a barometer back online and internal Humidity sensor. We are still waiting on the external Humidity sensor. |
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The Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc. Star Night was cancelled due to weather. |
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The PC interface has arrived for the weather station, we are now able to upload temperature, wind speed and wind direction. We are still waiting on additional sensors. |
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The Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc Monthly Star Night was cancelled due to weather. |
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The SAS members corner is back online. The Davis weather station is up, but we are having issues with wind speed. |
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The old weather station has been taken down and the rain gauge which was a modified Davis unit has been restored to factory configuration for use with the replacement weather station. |
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The forums have been restored, and we are working on the SAS members corner. Parts have been ordered for the Davis weather station to get the needed sensors and PC connectivity. |
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The websites are back online in a limited capacity, the forum and the SAS members corner are still down and the backups are damaged, 2 months data is lost. |
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A Davis weather wizard III has been donated to the observatory to help get the weather station back online. |
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Repairs have been made to the server and it is in the process of being rebuilt. The websites remained down. |
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A second series of thunderstorms passed through severely damaging the server that hosts the Observatory and SAS websites and a key router. |
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The skylight Astronomical Society, Inc held it's monthly meeting at the observatory. |
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A temporary server has been put online to replace the damaged server while a permanent replacement can be ordered. All external weather station components have been destroyed. |
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A lightning storm has damaged the weather station and one server at the observatory |
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The Skylight Astronomical Society held a second Monthly Star Night at the Observatory |
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The Skylight Astronomical Society held it's Monthly Star Night at the Observatory |
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The skylight Astronomical Society, Inc held it's annual business meeting at the observatory. |
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The Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc held it's monthly star night |
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The skylight Astronomical Society, Inc held it's monthly meeting at the observatory. |
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A issue was identified and fixed that was causing the 7 day weather forecast on the website to load very slowly. |
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The skylight Astronomical Society, Inc held it's monthly meeting at the observatory. |
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The weather station's rain gauge has failed. It will be a couple of weeks before we can take it down for repairs. |
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Today is the third anniversary of the Rockbottom Observatory website. |
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The Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc monthly star night was cancelled due to weather. |
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The Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc held it's monthly meeting at the observatory. Matt BenDaniel was guest speaker. |
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The Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc monthly star night at the observatory was cancelled due to weather. |
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The Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc Held it's monthly meeting at the observatory. |
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The Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc Star Party was cancelled due to weather. |
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The Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc held it's monthly meeting at the observatory. |
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ACP Software in the RD-1 was updated to the latest version. An OS upgrade will be required to complete additional software upgrades to the system. |
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A work party was held at the observatory to split wood and general grounds cleanup. Thanks to all who participated! |
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The Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc's Monthly star night was cancelled due to weather. |
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The Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc held it's monthly meeting at the observatory. |
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A new air duct and fan was installed in the observatory to better circulate air throughout the building. |
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The Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc's Monthly star night was cancelled due to weather. |
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The damaged rain gauge electronics were replaced and the rain gauge is now back on line. Due to the frequency of the rain gauge failures from lightning. The year to date total rain fall was removed from the weather page as it has to be reset whenever a failure occurs. |
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The wood stove chimney was cleaned in preparation of this winter's heating needs. |
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A second work party was held to finish splitting and continue hauling firewood. All the wood was split but not all wood was hauled to the observatory. Another work party will be held at a later date. |
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The Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc held it's monthly meeting at the observatory. |
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A Work Party was held to split and haul wood to the observatory from a SAS member's home in Acton. Thanks to all who helped! |
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Work began on the footings for the replacement foot bridge across the canal. The support timbers on the old bridge are rotting and need replacement. |
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The Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc. Star night was cancelled due to weather |
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The Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc held it's monthly meeting at the observatory. |
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The Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc. Star night was cancelled due to weather |
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A lightning storm has damaged the weather station's rain gauge. We have ordered replacement components, however, it will be offline for several days. |
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The skylight Astronomical Society, Inc held it's monthly meeting at the observatory. |
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The Skylight Astronomical Society's monthly star night was cancelled due to weather. |
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The Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc held it's monthly meeting at the observatory. |
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The Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc's Star Night was cancelled due to weather. |
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Due to equipment failure, the observatory webcam has been taken offline. |
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The Rockbottom Observatory participated in a Venus Transit watch sponsored by the Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc at Pilot Grove in Stow. The last 30 minutes of the transit was viewed from the observatory. |
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A work party was held to polar align the RD-1 telescope, although closer, the scope is still not aligned properly. A few changes to the mount will be made to improve aligning. The RD-1 will remain offline for a few more weeks. |
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The Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc held it's annual business meeting and BBQ at the observatory. |
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Community Forums have been added to the Rockbottom Observatory site. These forums are for Astronomy related discussions and announcements. |
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Plans are underway for a work party next week to perform the polar alignment of the telescope in the RD-1 Observatory, weather permitting. |
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The Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc. Monthly Star Night at the observatory was cancelled due to weather. |
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A server crash at the observatory resulted in several hours of lost data from the weather station and a reset of the rain gauge totals. |
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The Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc held it's monthly meeting at the observatory. Guest Speaker was Greg Berghorn from MUFON |
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The Rockbottom Observatory joined the Slooh affiliate program. |
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A problem with the azimuth motor on the RD-1 telescope has been repaired, and the scope has been re-mounted in the observatory in polar mode using the recently constructed wedge mount. A damaged diagonal was also repaired, and a temporary brace was added to increase stability of the camera. |
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2 Groups of trees were removed on the left side of the observatory building. |
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Representatives from the Rockbottom Observatory attended the 13th Annual North East Astronomy Forum in Suffern NY |
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The Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc held it's monthly Star Night at the observatory |
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The RD-1 robotic observatory has been taken offline for maintenance and hardware upgrades. Expected completion date will be late April 2004 |
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The Rockbottom Observatory Participated in the Holliston Elementary School Star Party sponsored by the Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc. |
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Spring cleanup has begun on the Observatory grounds. Another 20 ft will be recovered along the canal bank, and the field beyond the parking lot will be cleaned and maintained this year for viewing sessions. |
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The Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc held it's monthly meeting at the observatory. |
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The Rockbottom Observatory in conjunction with the Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc presented an astronomy presentation to the 4th grade students at the McCarthy Towne School. |
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The Rockbottom Observatory participated in the Acton 4th grade Star Party At the McCarthy Towne School Building. |
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Today is the second anniversary of the creation of the Rockbottom Observatory website. |
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The Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc's Monthly Star Night was cancelled due to weather. |
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New grounds keeping equipment was purchased for the Rockbottom Observatory. |
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The Rockbottom Observatory provided equipment and technical assistance to the Ecological Landscaping Association's 2 day conference in Boxboro, Ma |
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The Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc held it's monthly meeting at the Observatory. |
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The RD-1 Observatory was brought online for the SAS Star Night and live images were uploaded to the website. |
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The Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc held it's monthly Star Night at the Observatory |
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The Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc held it's monthly meeting at the Observatory. |
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The Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc's Monthly Star Night was cancelled due to clouds. |
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A faulty power connection was to blame for the computer failure in the RD-1 Observatory and has been repaired. |
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The main computer in the RD-1 Observatory has failed. Due to extreme cold and windy conditions, the computer will not be diagnosed until the temperature improves |
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A heater was installed in the rain gauge to allow the measurement of precipitation during winter storms. |
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Release Candidate 1 of Pinpoint 4 software was installed in the RD 1 observatory. |
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Software updates were made to the RD-1 observatory. The updates were made to Maximdl, ACP3, and Digital Dome Works software installed in the observatory. |
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A second work party was held to split firewood. another 2 cords were split. Thanks to everyone who helped. |
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A last minute work party was held at the observatory to split firewood. About 2 cords of wood were split. Thanks to everyone who helped out on such short notice. |
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Nellie's Niche became a sponsor in our web banner program |
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The Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc held it's monthly Meeting. The Evening Speaker was Andy Leskowitz |
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The Rockbottom Observatory held a public lunar eclipse watch at the Observatory |
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A work Party was held at the Observatory to install shrink wrap on the windows to help reduce heating costs this winter. |
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The Skylight Astronomical Society held it's Monthly meeting at the Observatory. |
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A work Party was held at the Observatory to pickup telephone poles to be used to rebuild the foot bridge across the canal. |
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The Rockbottom Observatory participated in the Skylight Astronomical Society Inc.'s final Star Party at Shelburne Farm. |
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The Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc held it's monthly meeting at the observatory. Their monthly star night was cancelled due to predicted overcast skies. |
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The Rockbottom Observatory participated in the The Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc's star party at Shelburne Farm in Stow, Ma |
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A new beta video driver plugin for maximDL was installed in the RD-1 computer for testing. Preliminary tests show a marked improvement in image quality. The dithered image effect seems to be resolved. We will continue testing the beta driver. |
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A counter top snack machine was donated and installed in the hallway at the observatory. |
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The Rockbottom Observatory participated in the The Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc's star party at Shelburne Farm in Stow, Ma |
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The Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc held it's monthly meeting and monthly star night at the Rockbottom Observatory. There was a large turnout for the monthly viewing and seeing was good. |
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The observatory held a public viewing of Mars. Weather and seeing were marginal. The viewing session ended at 1:30am |
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The "astroclass" banner program has been integrated into the Rockbottom Observatory website as a sponsor banner program appearing on the classified page and the weather page. |
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The classified ad script is now reconfigured and installed on the Rockbottom Observatory website. |
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The "astroclass" classified website is being shutdown, their classified ad script and auction script will be incorporated into the Rockbottom Observatory website. |
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ACP version 3.1 was installed in the RD-1 Robotic Observatory. |
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A break in the weather allowed broadcasting a scope live session with the RD-1 |
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General maintenance was performed on the outside of the RD-1 observatory including a coat of protective wax on the outer surface of the dome. |
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The weekly ephemeris tables have been changed to a bi-weekly format. |
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The Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc. held it's monthly meeting at the observatory. |
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The final release of ACP3 has been installed in the RD-1 Observatory. |
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A beta version of wserver weather software was installed to the weather station computer to provide bug fixes and hi/lo readings for all sensors. The web page has been modified to accommodate the new features. |
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The Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc held it's monthly Star Night at the Observatory. The weather permitted a brief but excellent viewing session. |
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The unshielded outdoor temperature sensor has been repaired. |
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The Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc held it's monthly meeting at the Observatory. |
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A new focal reducer was installed in the RD-1. The reducer yields a f/3.3 in the current configuration, or it can easily be converted to F6.3 Testing continues on the video capture issue. The video feed has been changed to s-video to see if there is a performance improvement. |
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The long period of rains and wind has caused the rain gauge to become plugged again. The rain gauge has been cleaned out and the measurement of water was not lost, keeping the total rainfall accurate. |
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A manual imaging session was run with the RD-1. An issue still persists with the scope accuracy. We will schedule a maintenance period for the scope in July and accelerate the implementation of the polar mount to coordinate with the maintenance period. |
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3 new images were uploaded to the photo gallery. The blurry M 10 image from the June 6th session was also replaced with a better image. |
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A workaround has been implemented to bypass scripting failures from the June 6th testing session. Script testing continues. A scope alignment issue still persists. |
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The first of the raw fits images are now available for download from the Photo Gallery. The fits images may be downloaded and used as practice for image processing. The images are being placed as public domain and may be used as desired. In the future we will be making available zipped sets of images suitable for stacking. Some of the fits images are plate resolved and include WCS data. |
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Errors were encountered during an automated scripting run of the RD-1 Observatory. The RD-1 was switched to manual mode and limited imaging was obtained for future testing. The scope live site performed flawlessly during the tests. |
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The Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc.'s monthly star night was cancelled due to weather. |
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A new feature has been added to the website called Scope Live. When the RD-1 is in operation, this page will be automatically updated once a minute with an image captured from the dome's telescope. When the RD-1 is not in operation, the last image captured during the last observing session will be displayed. |
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The addition of the modified USB cable in the RD-1 computer in order to gain access to a secondary USB chip on the system board, appears to have resolved the configuration issues between the USB lan adaptor, and the USB capture device for the internal camera. The new configuration is in testing. |
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Skylight Astronomical Society held it's annual business meeting and barbeque at the Observatory. |
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Work has begun on a modified usb connector for the RD-1 computer to gain the functionality of a second usb chip on the system board in hopes of resolving the usb capture card conflict. |
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A display resolution issue in maxim dl during remote connection was resolved with configuration changes to the default settings. |
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Several days of heavy rain has triggered a communication problems on the 1 wire bus of the weather station. The accuracy of the rain count is in question. |
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A driver incompatibility between the new capture device and Maxim dl was resolved by the use of an alternate updated driver. An incompatibility between a new usb lan device and a usb capture device is still being evaluated. |
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A new video capture device was installed in the RD-1 computer. Device compatibility issues created by this installation are being evaluated. |
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Release Candidate 4 of ACP3 was installed in the RD-1 for testing and evaluation. |
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A successful night of remote imaging was conducted with the RD-1 from a remote connection in New York. |
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Representatives from the observatory attended the North East Astronomy Forum in New York |
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Updates have been made to the observatory website. |
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Release Candidate 3 of ACP3 was installed in the RD-1 for testing. |
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The Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc's monthly star night was cancelled due to weather. |
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Last brush clearing work party for the season was held at the observatory. The work was concentrated on the hillside where the RD-1 will eventually be located. |
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New raw images were uploaded to the observatory photo gallery. |
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4 messier objects were imaged by the RD-1 observatory: M3, M5, M13, & M92 |
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Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc held it's monthly meeting at the observatory. |
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Maxim dl imaging software was added to the RD-1 observatory computer. |
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A beta copy of the ASCOM compatible robofocus was installed in the RD-1 for testing. The ASCOM package was also updated to the latest level. |
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A work party was held at the observatory to clear brush from the hillside. |
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ACP3 RC1 was installed in the RD-1 for testing today. The install caused minor corruption to the license database. |
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The Technical Innovation weather module was added to the RD-1 observatory today. |
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The latest beta of ACP3 was installed in the RD-1 observatory for testing. |
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The Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc's monthly star night was cancelled due to weather. |
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Hallo Nights planetarium software was added to the RD-1 observatory for evaluation. |
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T-shirts were silk screened for the Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc at the observatory. |
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A loose power connection for the dew heater controller in the RD-1 was corrected. The dew heaters are now back on line. |
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Today marks the 1 year anniversary of the Rockbottom Observatory website. Prior to the creation of this site, the observatory was part of the Skylight Astronomical Society Inc's website. |
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A Brief imaging session was run using the RD-1 Observatory. 3 Raw images in Orion were uploaded to the photo gallery. |
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New shims were installed in the 12" LX200 to correct shifting in the corrector plate that was recently observed. The scope will be re-collimated when weather permits. |
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An additional bank of infrared lights have been installed in the RD-1 to improve remote visibility inside the observatory. The lights have been connected to a separate remote switch to be turned on and off as needed to conserve energy. |
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During a routine inspection it was discovered that the Dewbuster controller has failed. It will be removed and tested at a later date. |
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ACP3 Beta has been downloaded and installed in the RD-1 computer for evaluation and testing. |
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The last silk screening class for members of the Skylight Astronomical Society was held at the observatory tonight. This was a free course for their members sponsored by the observatory. |
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Representatives of the Skylight Astronomical Society and the Rockbottom Observatory, participated in the Acton 4th grade Star Party sponsored by ATMOB |
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The Stellacam EX Control box has been re-installed in the RD-1, during installation and testing a problem has been discovered with the robofocuser. The RD-1 is functional despite the problem, but it will need further investigation. M42 was imaged during testing, before the clouds moved in. |
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The DDW V3 loaner board has been returned to Technical Innovations today. The upgraded board is performing satisfactorily |
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The upgraded DDW control board has completed over 50 hours of testing with only one minor bug detected. Technical Innovations is working on the fix. |
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The Stellacam EX control box has been repaired and received today. It will be re-installed in the RD-1 on Saturday, weather permitting. |
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Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc's monthly star night was cancelled due to weather |
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The Observatory did not participate in the ATMOB Acton 4th grade Star Party due to cold temperatures and high winds. |
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The final Saturn Day viewing session was cancelled due to weather. |
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The Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc held it's it's monthly meeting. Guest Speaker was Kelly Beatty of Sky & Telescope Magazine. |
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The upgraded DDW4 control board was re-installed in the RD-1 today and testing has begun on the upgraded firmware and software. |
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The Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc announced that Kelly Beatty, Senior Editor of Sky and Telescope will be the guest speaker at their monthly meeting on February 27th at 8pm. Their meeting is held at the observatory. The topic will be on extrasolar planets. |
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RD-1 computer crash was caused by a software bug in the latest release of antivirus software. The issue has been corrected and the computer will be tested for several days before re-installation into the RD-1 |
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Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc.'s Saturn Day was cancelled due to cold temperatures |
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A software upgrade has caused a system crash in the RD-1 requiring the removal of the main computer |
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It has been determined the PC Control Module upgrade for the Stellacam EX is the defective component and will be sent in for repairs. |
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The Observatory assisted the Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc.'s presentation at the McCarthy Towne School in Acton, Ma. |
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The Rockbottom Observatory donated prizes to the Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc for their annual Essay contest at the McCarthy Towne School in Acton, Ma |
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The Acton Star Party part 1 hosted by ATMOB has been cancelled. new dates will be posted on the event calendar when available. |
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The outdoor temperature sensor configuration had become corrupted, this has been corrected and the sensor is correctly reporting outdoor temperatures. |
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The outdoor temperature sensor is malfunctioning, it should be repaired this evening. |
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The Acton School Star Party part 1 hosted by ATMOB has been postponed, the observatory had planned to participate. |
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Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc held it's weekly Saturn Day viewing in the parking lot. |
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The Stellacam EX in the RD-1 has failed. The camera will not power up and communications to the control unit has been lost. It will be removed from the observatory and sent out for repairs. |
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RD-1 Computer lockups appear to be originating with a conflict between the remote management software and wireless management software. The lockups originating after the addition of the serial adaptor was a coincidence. |
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A stronger 2" focuser was added to the RD-1, this has resulted in the need to recalibrate the Robofocuser, however, poor weather has delayed the recalibration. |
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The Skylight Astronomical Society Inc.'s Saturn Day Viewing session was cancelled due to weather. |
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RD-1 is experiencing computer lockups after the installation of the Stellacam PC Control upgrade. The camera and control has been ruled out. The focus is on the addition of a third USB to Serial Adaptor. |
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The Skylight Astronomical Society Inc.'s Saturn Day viewing session has been cancelled due to clouds. |
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The upgraded Stellacam EX control box was re-installed into the RD-1 Observatory today. |
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Skylight Astronomical Society, Inc. held their "Saturn-Day" viewing in the parking lot. |
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Monthly Galilean Moon Events have been added to the reference section on the website. |
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Recent cold spell is affecting the computer in the RD-1 observatory. The system has been reconfigured to improve performance. |
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Skylight astronomical Society, Inc. is extending "Saturn Day" observations at the observatory. See the Event Calendar for more information |
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The Stellacam EX control box has been sent back to the factory for the PC control module upgrade |
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DDW4 control board has been sent back to the factory for firmware and hardware upgrades |
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Yesterday's snow storm caused a short in the power line to the weather station causing damage to the unshielded outdoor sensor |
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The Telescope control software has been updated in the RD-1 observatory to improve performance and functionality. |
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A new feature has been added to the Observatory website, an online log book of observatory activities. |
