Wish list for the observatory:

This is just a general wish list, some things we are looking to get solved. It's more of a private wish list than a public wish list. I'm not posting this to "ask for donations" for the observatory, but simply to put out a post of some things that I chat with and think about with other FAAC members and most of these things will be happening over time. It's more of a reminder list for me than a wish list for others.

The web it a pretty good place to store a list and check back on from anywhere. So here goes, and I'm sure this will change over time.

1. 25mm eyepiece. (Check we actually have this now.) This was on our list, but I ticked this off the list by leaving one of my eyepieces in the observatory. As far as I'm concerned it's now owned by the school system and a little donation. I bought another 25mm and I'm happy with the other one, so the Celestron 1.25 inch is now in the observatory.
2. Moon filter. Or polarizing filter. This was on my personal list as something to get for the observatory, but it's been checked off when I looked in the eyepiece box. I didn't realize we had a variable polarizing filter (with two filters) in the case. Probably part of the original order. It's a Celestron brand name for 1.25 eyepieces. I tried it last night on the C-14 after finding it. It works fine, and is especially cool to use when the moon is bright or on the C14 which is a very bright instrument. Having such a big mirror this telescope will show a very bright moon image. The filter goes between the eyepiece and the telescope fitting inside the holder first. It's a little short for some of the eyepieces. It has a rotating filter that varies the amount of light and you have to adjust it before putting it in the eyepiece holder.
3. Entry Rug. The one we have has its base shedding and it's messy if we move it around. Pieces of rubber all over the carpet.
4. Field Reducer Lens for the Telescope. Meade and Celestron both make these and they work for the C14. I've heard both are equal in quality and work well. They convert a Meade 12 inch SCT into a F6.3. The Celestron C14 has a longer focal length F11 and it's converted into a F7 with the field reducer. This will give us wider field views with the Big C-14. These run about $150 and I'm very tempted to pick one up when I visit a local Astronomy store like Rider's Hobby shop in Ypsilanti. The last time I was there and I asked if they had one, they were out of stock. I haven't ordered one yet, but will likely be ordering one of these soon.
5. A new door. We have a new lock, but we need a new door. We have a donor that will donate the door and costs to install it, but we still have to setup the time and figure out when this can be done. I have to talk to the installing company and schedule this. The current door works okay, but it's not exactly what we want. We want a better door. It's tough sometimes to co-ordinate this with the school because Leo and I both are working during the day of course.
6. FIxing a burnt out outlet. We had a short in the high outlet. We have to get this fixed. We don't power the high outlets. We need to fix this. The school will be notified Tuesday about this and hopefully they can get this fixed.
7. Shutter leak. I know where the leak is, we have to get the school or a local company to fix this, we need to get that fixed and schedule carefully the time it's fixed. We don't want a problem happening while the fix occurs and hopefully we'll have some kind of faac supervision or perhaps the supervision of the repair done by a trusted school oversight person.
8. Shelf unit. Some kind of design for more shelf space. Some of the core support members and Leo McMaster have talked about this a bit at times. It's difficult to get an agreement on the design and what type of unit to use. To tell you the truth as I use the observatory more and more with different groups and hear more feedback, I'm more certain what designs would be better and what would work better. We have one issue that could be a little bit of a problem for a HIGH SHELF unit, that is the shutter cable release. We have a cable release that hangs down to allow the bottom panel to be disconnected from the shutter. This can hit something high if we are rotating the shutter with the bottom panel down.

I have spent some time dreaming about different designs for something custom and perhaps more permanent, almost like a fine boat design, like fine furniture, something custom. I even talked to a neighbor about building something in his wood shop, but to be truthful I don't have a consensus or best design figured out. It would be good to have just a better shelf on one side that was affordable and would fit and allow us to have or stack most accessories in one spot. This would give us more floor space and less clutter. If we have two or three astronomers inside and they each bring a couple bags of items we can take up a lot of floor space and perhaps have bags on chairs. Ideally for a quick show, we'd have mostly standing room only and perhaps 3 or 4 visitors inside standing waiting to look at the telescope. It can get crowded. Depending on the use of the observatory, the floor space and shelf space can change. It's almost better to have a dynamic use of the space, configured with stuff brought in and taken out, than trying to put an item in the observatory for every possible use. At times I've wondered about having a couple of chairs, like big coolers that had internal storage, that we could use as a chair and location for items we bring into the observatory. Things like this might happen. I also at times wonder about a large "WORK BOX" permanently attached to the ground outside of the observatory away from the walls, that could be used as a lockable storage place for things like lawn chairs.

I thought at one time that a high shelf would be good around the upper edge of the wall, but this seems like a big problem. Because the lights inside would be blocked by such a shelf system. One of the members showed me a drawn prototype of a possible design, but when I look at the lights if we want the lights to work they'd be blocked by a high shelf, so that's probably not an ideal solution.

Anyway, there's some thoughts toward a wish list. We could probably talk about and think about other items as well. For example I was talking to Greg the other night and he mentioned that we might want a better setup for storage of eyepieces, maybe something like a tray that rotates on the column. I don't know if a good design would involve some kind of rotation of a lazy susan like tray for eyepieces. Maybe the inside of a ring with an edge that stays still would be best. Something perhaps as wide as the current mount plate that we set eyepieces on. The mounting column. A rotating tray may present problems with cables (my first thoughts). I've seen fixed trays that might work pretty well. If the tray isn't solid it might be bumped and fall completely off, so it's more of a permanent shelf. If it covered the mounting bolts it might provide a bigger flatter surface.

The ladder while usable might actually be improved, but there seems to be no good common ones on the market. Mostly step ladders. Sometimes I wish we had one that had almost a bicycle type handlebar on it, something perhaps with a soft handle like a bicycle that kids could grasp when they step up to peer in the eyepiece for the first time. People and especially little kids may want to grab the eyepiece or steady themselves with the scope. It would be nice to have something that is designed to be a "grab bar" for young kids or those not familiar with the telescope. These seem to be minor things and they are for the most part.

There are other more esoteric with items I think about that just don't exist yet. For example a device that is almost like a tent like hallway that would be put outside the observatory at night and form a light break to block light from the open door. This would keep stray light out of the inside when the door is opened up. This could be accomplished by a awning that arches over like a circular tent and is over the doorway. To block light from the 20 street lights in the parking lot. When you're inside and viewing after a while your eyes will be adjusted for the dark. It's a pain to have someone open the door and 20 lights mess up your low light night vision adjusted eyes.

Some things are also basic, for example we need to put dark tape over every light that glows inside when FAAC members and experienced astronomers are inside. All the little stray lights glowing are a distraction. The general visitor may not notice this much because they are looking at brighter objects and not used to trying to look with adjusted dark adapted eyes.

We need a cover over the switches that turn on the Losmandy Power supply. These switches are on the column and they can be hit by the controller cable if you wrap it around counterclockwise while viewing. This can turn off the mount power. This can be remedied with some kind of flip down clear plastic cover over the power switches.

TO GO COMPLETELY OUT OF A DOABLE ORBIT - toward more of a possible future dream.
Ideally we would eventually have a completely different setup in the future. I have a lot of dreams as well to expand the site, but this is more in a mode of a dream than a good wish list. Something like a multimedia room that has a telescope museum inside it, with perhaps 6 to 8 telescopes we could quickly wheel outside to use at night with large star parties. I can imagine the old 8 inch telescope being reworked and being one of these. And perhaps a few other interesting older telescopes as well. We'd need to have a lot more interest from students and a lot more interest from the public to have a need and start a real building project toward a building. I can even imagine it being a building that would use "natural building techniques" and have superinsulated walls and be almost stand alone and green off grid. There is a "straw bale cottage" in Kensington Metro park that is a large public building that was built using "natural green" materials. We could build a "Straw bale" multimedia telescope museum that would be off grid and a green building energy experiment. It might even involve teaching students in the High School green building technology. But that's another dream and not really part of a wish list that is doable at this time.

Earlier I thought about, but didn't post a thought of a roll off observatory observatory next to the current one that could double as a AV media platform for a video camera for the football field. Over time however being at the site and seeing how things work with the current observatory, it becomes clear that some ideas would not work out as well as you could first think they could and a roll off roof observatory would not be a good observatory for this site. (To much light pollution and to much cold in the winter time, a dome is better, or forgo the dome and just use telescopes around the site, perhaps store them in a "museum". I am partial to big thinking and dreaming big. I could imagine events being like star parties, and why not have some telescopes at the site for FAAC members, they could just arrive setup a bunch of scopes and have dozens of people looking through different telescopes. This lets people see more and experience different types of telescopes without "waiting and waiting". The biggest time killer to me, is having to wait in line, to get a brief glimpse through a telescope. If there are more people, it's good to be able to pull out more telescopes. This was the thinking behind building the 8 inch telescope back in 1976-77. When we had both scopes out, the club had twice the time to look through eyepieces. Looking is what visual astronomy is all about.