Commissioning of the 4-Scope Array

October 16, 2017

With help from Officina Stellare’s Giovanni Dal Lago, we commissioned our 4-scope array this past weekend. The array comprises Officina Stellare’s new high precision fork mount supporting 4 OS RH300 telescopes reduced to f/2.4 (the fastest RH300s in the world).

The imaging train comprises Optec Gemini rotating focusers and FLI filter wheels and cameras. Two of the scopes sport FLI PL16803s, and the other two FLI 29050s.

The mount is only the second of its kind produced by Officina Stellare and runs custom software by Astrometrics Instruments. Each scope is outfitted with its own microcomputer for imaging control, with the array’s primary system also controlling the mount. Our first pointing model, consisting of more than 200 points, has a pointing accuracy of less than 7 arcseconds (there are 3,600 arcseconds in a degree).

A rare break in the clouds on an extremely wet weekend gave us enough time to take some daytime video showing the mount movement.

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