All except motor mounting and more exact alignment of telescope. All filters have been added to CCD camera wheels both 1.25 and 2 inch.  Having such a large selection of filters should enable us to do a larger number of studies.  One of the more interesting one is the detection of OIII and NII in a globular indicative of a potential black hole white dwarf combination.

The other potential is that of detecting SII distribution around extra galactic globulars with the potential of detecting a possible trail of Alpha material.

Please review the selection of filters and if you have any ideas for a research project please let me know.     thanks and I hope this comes off without a hitch!!!

I am attaching a recent picture of the inside and the outside of the observatory. You can see that it is complete with the exception that the motors are not attached.

that is next week!!!

I have started the process of communicating with the International Dark Sky Society.

Below is the response from an email sent some two weeks ago

I hope we can move forward to make Amador County a Dark Sky site before development encroaches on our wonderfully dark skies.

“Happy Holidays!

I will be out of the office as the year winds down, but I look forward to working with you in 2012. I will return to work January 3.

Best,
Rowena Davis
International Dark-Sky Association

“

Sean Young installed Askimet and upgraded the wordpresss version. This should help reduce the amount of spam we have been attracting.

Hopefully once we get some projects going we will have more posts.

Until then have a merry xmas and happy holidays.

Philip

The intention of this site is a community effort and I have already confused one person in this regard and have contradicted my own statements relative to this sites purpose – my enthusiasm over took my reasoning. Not an excuse but an apology.

For me this is a learning process and appreciate any and all feedback so that I do not alienate any others.

However, emails which represent this website should be vetted by at least myself if not others before being sent out. This is common courtesy and reduces the potential for misuse, misrepresentation of our objective and allows for advancing a personal agenda at the expense of others.

I believe this has already happened as an individual has sent emails out without allowing me to review the contents or to have access to the people he emailed.

He asked for access to post on the site. I responded with a request for the email list and what the content was. I gathered it was specific to him alone and to his educational programs agenda. Advertising dates for star parties and for Kid College camps all using AAPS and this website.

While I try to better format this site and make errors in the process, I have hoped for contributions which will enrich and attract others so that we can all better share in our mutual passion for astronomy.

I am new to this area and do not know that many people to contact. While at least one member promised to share his list of local amateurs – he has once again retracted his promise.

As well he has retracted his promise to provide the 24 inch mirror blank for community use.  While I realize there are misunderstandings and differences; communication is the only way to resolve such misunderstandings.

I do not wish to disparage anyone or speak ill of anyone – I hope that this individual also respects this and does not defame this site, myself or the concept.

This will do great harm to credibility to all involved and may harm our chances for attracting interest and latter funding for building a community based observatory.

I am more than willing to admit my mistakes and take criticism in stride for the better good of the objective. At least I try. What is intolerable is withholding information after promising to provide it as though it is the personal property of that individual.

Further, as I never reviewed the emails sent out by this individual I have no idea how accurate the contents were or whether they served that persons personal agenda or the agenda of this effort.

It saddens me that things turn so personal so quickly and that it is necessary to inquire why a person has stopped communicating with me.

Therefore the educational section now remains unfilled and

William Benzow will be working as observer and assisting with photometric observations when AAPO becomes operational.

Given his skill in all things mechanical and his ambition to assist me with observations – William will be a strategic asset for me for imaging and any research I will be engaged in.

The first project will be to image M 79 with the 14.5 an ambitious goal.

AAPS was formed to appeal to anyone with a penchant and or interest for astronomy. The base is in Amador county California and its primary mission is to serve and bring together those in and around Gold country so we can have a forum for various subjects as well as a way to communicate with other members.

MISSION STATEMENT:

Provide an easily accessible site for any interested amateur to communicate and contribute to amateur projects and efforts. Principally for the local community in and around Gold Country California – participating members are located in Greece, Colorado and other locations around the world.

Those wishing to be provided with an email address here are welcome to ask and I will provide you with one.

Those who wish to contribute to any forum or section here are also welcome to do so. I am no expert at this and this site is entirely at my expense.

When we get more members it will be important to collect membership dues for the purpose of updating the site and probably scaling the type of website up to one that has data and image exchange.

The question of how do porch lights, house lights and street lights affect astronomical imaging is easy to answer from the standpoint of the light collecting instruments used by the Observatory.

Any scattered light can reach the detectors on the telescope (which are sensitive to even a single photon).  This scattered light can either ruin a complete night of observing or limit the depth of penetration into the night sky.

In all cases scattered light will detract from the observations and negatively impact the research or imaging taking place at the observatory at the time.

The closest example of this is when one if fishing and noises scare the fish away. You try to politely ask anyone making noise to reduce the noise (this implies that most people even clue in to this fact).

The other example is when one is trying to sleep and lights from the neighbors yard are overwhelming any curtains you have. You try again to be polite and ask them to please respect your attempt at sleep.

Noise pollution is also a similar problem Of course though there must be a reasonable attempt at not placing a stranglehold on others enjoyment of their activities at and in their own homes.

Remember also that any light that is not illuminating something and scatters away into the night sky is both a nuisance and wasted electricity and illumination.

Security lights are such a waste and only destroy the beautiful view of the heavens above.

I have posted some notices around my property and hope to have more specific indicators as to when I plan on imaging or doing research so that I will not be asking for cooperation when I am not using the telescope.

All of you are welcome to visit and I will be happy to show you the views through the telescopes if you simply call ahead.

If you are interested in the impact that light has on astronomical viewing the International Dark Sky association has a website dedicated to this.

I am currently trying to determine if we can quality for a dark site and preserve the wonderfully dark skies we currently have.

Astronomy is one of the most interesting and visually stunning of the sciences. It borders on the spiritual and tests our imaginations when trying to comprehend some of the most recent discoveries (Exo planets) and exotic ideas such as Dark Matter.

We have the opportunity to view and image these wonders from our own backyards. I hope you appreciate and respect this work and endorse my efforts to maintain a dark night sky around our small enclave.

Sincerely

Philip Young

Founder

AAPS     www.aastrops.com

Because I will have an observatory I am hopeful that people will respect my need for darkness and try to avoid shining lights my way or helping to reduce stray lights by

Walls raised for observatory nov 30. Telescope pier and scope will be moved this saturday as well Mel Bartels servo controls and drivers will be added – first light with scope fitted with servo’s within a fortnight.