What's new at Berry Observatory

12/17/2008 - Berry Observatory makes the cover of the "Boomers Today" Publication!  The publisher of Boomers Today magazine contacted me in October and told me they wanted to do a cover story featuring Berry Observatory.  Over the past several months, I have been busy writing the story and working with their graphic design people to put together a three-page article along with five or six photos.  As you can see, I'm still in my neck brace - The photographer didn't want me to take it off. The first four images are .JPGs scanned from the publication, the links below the images are the actual .PDF files used by the publisher:

                                                    

            .PDF File of Pages 8-9 - 1.66MB                   .PDF File of pages 9-10 - 1.05MB

12/15/2008 - Had my follow-up appointment with the surgeon that fixed my neck and he said everything looked GREAT!  I can remove my brace on Christmas Eve!  Merry Christmas to me!

11/28/2008 - Had a clear night tonight, so I ventured out and shot a few photos of the Orion Nebula and the Horsehead.

11/21/2008 - Recovering fine.  It's been cloudy, so I haven't been able to use the observatory since I've been home.

11/14/2008 - Back home from Fort Wayne and all I can say is... WOW!  No more pain, no more headaches, and the pain from the surgery itself was minimal.  Six weeks in a neck brace and I'll be home free!

11/13/2008 - Headed to Lutheran Hospital in Fort Wayne, IN to have neck surgery - I have been fighting neck pain and headaches for about five years.  Originally, in 2004 they wanted to "fuse" three of my neck vertebrae together - I didn't like the sound of it and with my Dad being a retired surgeon, he agreed.  I tolerated the pain until FINALLY the FDA approved replacement disc procedures.  It took SIX MONTHS for the insurance company to approve the procedure, but they finally did in September and I scheduled the procedure immediately.

05/14/2008 - Found some 3-inch round LED lights today that have five LED's in them, and can be bright dim, or off by tapping the light itself.  They also tilt and rotate. at $11 for THREE I couldn't go wrong!  I loaded them with AAA rechargeable batteries, and installed them inside the viewing room.  Check it out! I'm real happy with them for at least temporary lighting without needing power.

05/13/2008 - Big and I finished the South exterior wall tonight by installing several sections of plywood. Heavy discussions on the exterior door mounting, security systems, lighting and interior design.  This is really going to be COOL when it's done!

05/12/2008 - While in Toledo for Mother's Day, I found a GREAT deal on a 45 Watt Solar Panel system; Included were THREE Solar Panels each 45" High by 15" Wide, a steel mounting frame, a battery charger/regulator box, and two 5W 12v compact fluorescent lights.  Quite a deal!  Under full sun, this will put out almost 4 AMPS @ 14.7 volts.  I roughly calculated that this should be enough to keep my Deep-Cycle 12V automotive batteries charged.  We'll see... I can always add another one if needed.  Hint! Hint!  Pictures will follow as soon as the sun comes out again!

05/11/2008 - Between rain showers, Big Dan and I attached the eight pieces of pre-painted plywood, blue side in, and officially weather-proofed the viewing room!  A quick check at 11:30pm during a rain shower, showed complete success - Dry as a bone inside!

05/10/2008 - RAISING THE DOME DAY!  A beautiful Saturday morning and we were ready to go!  With rain in the forecast for tomorrow, our goals were to finish applying the roofing on the viewing room, paint the wall studs flat black, install the Dome Mounting Ring (DMR), and HOIST UP THE DOME!  If time allowed we wanted to also attach the plywood exterior walls, making the viewing room weatherproof.  We started at 10:00am and "Raised the Dome" at 9:30pm - Thanks to Big Dan, Curt Aldrich, My wife Inga, and Kurt Bachellor!  As it was completely dark, we decided to celebrate and attach the walls on Sunday.  We did apply a bead of caulk around the DMR and used some steel mounting straps to secure the DMR to the roof.

05/09/2008 - Upon arriving home from work, there was a stray rain shower pretty much centered over Berry Observatory, so doing any roofing work was out of the question.  I decided to start painting the plywood that would be used for the walls of the viewing room.  To minimize the temperature difference between the outside ambient air and the inside of the viewing room, we had decided to leave the bare wall studs inside the room and use weather treated plywood for the outside of the walls.  My design was fairly simple - Paint the wall studs flat black BEFORE attaching the plywood which would be painted "Deep Space Blue" on the inside.  I applied two coats of blue to the eight sheets of plywood that would cover the walls, and let everything dry overnight.

05/06/2008 - After finishing-up a few minor things, we set out to get the viewing room roof covered with waterproof material.  The Protecto-Roof looked good; I wanted white roofing to keep the heat absorption down, as well as for looks; flexability was also a concern as we had quite a few "custom" angles to seal. After sanding the plywood seams and rough edges Big Dan swept and air blasted clean the viewing room roof in preparation for the first 3-foot wide strip of covering.  We had previously decided to do the hardest strip first, which was where the control room roof met the viewing room roof (DMF) to see if it would work out OK...  IT DID!  We finished the first strip JUST as the predicted scattered rain shower moved in - Around 11:00pm.  Time to call it a night...

05/05/2008 - Things are getting busier at work, as well as at home.  My younger son Tyler graduated from Defiance College on Sunday (5/5) with a BA degree in Business Management - Congratulations Tyler!

We were able to squeeze in a few hours over the weekend though. Saturday we built and installed the remaining three walls around the control room.  This was a big step, because we need to get the control room roof designed, built and installed BEFORE we can proceed with covering the viewing room with our waterproof material.  We're not exactly sure what that material will be, but Tyler delivered a roll of Protecto-Roof self-adhesive white vinyl.  We'll experiment, but whatever the decision, this must be installed BEFORE we can finally install the Dome Mounting Ring (DMR).  Once the ring is installed, it's ON WITH THE DOME!

04/27/2008 - Another weekend and another 20+ hours of fun as we built the Dome Mounting Frame (DMF) which will allow the 96" dome to sit perfectly centered on the walls of the 10' x 12' "Viewing Room" side of the Observatory.  We also had several "meetings of the minds" where we discussed the power requirements, lighting, and threw out some initial ideas for how to structure the observatory presentations.  I would like to make the entire Observatory SOLAR POWERED - Using several 12v automotive type batteries to power the scope, lighting, and computers.  These batteries will be re-charged by two or three high efficiency solar panels, and a solar power monitor which will prevent the batteries from becoming over charged.  Plans are currently in progress.  I've added several new photos of the on-going construction HERE - STAY TUNED!  

04/22/2008 - As promised, the truck arrived today, (Tuesday) at 4:50pm - Big Dan and I met the truck (a 53' semi) at the end of my street, and within 10 minutes, John (the driver), Big Dan and I had the dome unloaded and on my small trailer - SEE PICTURES

04/20/2008 - John from Explora-Dome called and told me they had arranged an additional truck and I could expect my dome on TUESDAY April 22nd!  Could this get any better?

04/17/08 - I arranged several vacation days around the weather and Big Dan's work schedule and CONSTRUCTION BEGINS!

04/15/2008 - Dan from Explora-Dome called and said they had a truck coming through my area NEXT WEEK, and I could have my dome as soon as Wednesday, April 23rd!  WOW!

04/14/2008 - After reading an article "Choosing the Right Dome for You" in the June 2008 Astronomy magazine, I contacted Explora-Dome regarding the purchase of their highly reviewed and AFFORDABLE Observatory Dome.  After speaking with Dan the owner, and explaining the educational mission of Berry Observatory, he made me a deal I just couldn't refuse!  After clearing the purchase with corporate (my wife) I ORDERED an 8 foot Explora-Dome, Mounting Ring and Wheel Kit.  The Roll-Off roof was OUT!  Explora-Dome was IN! 

04/07/2008 - Finalized the plans and material list to start construction of the observatory framework.  Should start building this week (weather dependent)

04/06/2008 - Received my ORION Starshoot Autoguider this weekend - It's been on backorder since December.  This should vastly simplify the task of auto-guiding the scope by combining several pieces of equipment into ONE camera and cable.  The package came with PHD Guiding Software which I already use. Can't wait to try it out!

04/04/2008 - Added several more images to the Observatory Images page and a couple more pages of History.  Also got my building permit from the City Engineer's Office - I'm legal to start construction!

03/16/2008 - IT'S FINALLY OFFICIAL! www.berryobservatory.com has been registered, and is now the new home of this website.  I spent many hours researching the fastest, most economical way to get an official web presence - ended up with netfirms.com.  They were honest, inexpensive and offered everything I was looking for at a GREAT price!  The package included some bonus software to help with website design. 

03/05/2008 - Started working with NEBULOSITY, a feature-rich guiding/capture application.  At a price of only $45, it is very highly regarded and well supported with video tutorials as well as its own Yahoo Group to help explain the recommended procedures. 

02/19/2008 - Acquired a CANON EOS 40D DSLR camera to be used as the primary high resolution image capture device.  This camera lends itself beautifully to astrophotography. State-of-the-art "Live View" mode allows real-time focusing/framing with up to 10x magnification on the 3" LCD screen.  Additional features include extremely low noise, mirror lock-up mode and complete computer control through a single USB 2.0 cable.  I plan on sending the camera in to be modified, which involves removing the UV/IR filter in front of the CCD sensor.  This modification will result in significantly increased sensitivity to the wavelengths of the faint Hydrogen-Alpha light produced by emission nebulae such as M42 in Orion, The Lagoon, Veil, and California nebulae and many other emission type objects.

02/13/2008 - Tonight's TOTAL LUNAR ECLIPSE was absolutely gorgeous!  Crystal clear skies, along with the Moon being high overhead, meant easy viewing and photography.  Although it was only 6°F, the wind died down and overall conditions weren't that bad.  I put together a three-photo collage you can access via the Observatory Images page.

11/24/2007 - Installed GuideDog auto-guiding application (freeware) on the primary imaging computer and, using the ToUCam PRO as a guiding camera, did some preliminary guide testing.  We were guiding through the CGE1100 and imaging through the 80mm APO. After a short learning curve (at 22°F) everything seemed to work GREAT!  The guidestar remained centered for more than 5 minutes during this initial test. We also did a quick image session of Mars and at high magnification, we realized that the scope's collimation needed to be "tweaked" Decided to wait until next imaging session BRRRRRRR!

11/23/2007 - Imaged the Full Moon (97%) using the ORION StarShoot II webcam.  UNBELIEVABLE detail was visible through the 80mm AstroTech APO refractor. See the result here

11/18/2007 - FIRST LIGHT!  After 9 days of rain and clouds (typical November in Ohio) the CGE1100 and 80mm APO were used to image the moon and Comet 17P/Holmes using my FujiFilm S2PRO and ORION Starshoot II - See the Images HERE

11/09/2007 - An initial "drift alignment" was performed, tweaking the azimuth and altitude of the mount to be as close as possible to the celestial pole.

11/03/2007 - The CGE mount was attached to the pier, leveled and aligned with true north. Our initial alignment on the pole was within 1 degree!  We used a .0015 shim between the aluminum adapter and the mount to perfectly level the scope base.

10/27/2007 - The finished pier was primed and painted with several coats of grey metallic "hammered finish" Rust-Oleum spray paint.  The solid aluminum custom-made CGE1100 GEM mount adapter was bolted to the pier, and is now ready to accept the CGE1100 mount - PHOTO

10/26/2007 - Purchased AIP4WIN Image Processing Software - Used for advanced image processing and aligning / stacking frames.

10/25/2007 - Taking a day off from work, my good friend "Big" Dan Steffel and I placed a 6" ID x 8' long schedule 80 steel pipe into the hole on top of a hexagonal piece of 4" thick concrete block (found lying around my property) PHOTO.  It stood almost perfectly level. We then HAND MIXED twenty-two 80lb bags of Sakrete and, one at a time, filled the hole with concrete.  Next we poured 150lbs of sand into the pipe to help deaden vibration.  The pier was carefully leveled and everything allowed to cure.

10/22/2007 - My good friend Bill Duerk and crew from Duerk Construction arrived at the site and augered out a perfect 24" diameter by 58" deep hole at the precise location I had marked for the pier.

9/22/2007 - Today the AstroTech 80mm APO triplet refractor scope arrived.  Using a dovetail mount and a pair of 100mm mounting rings the unit was mounted on the CGE1100 tube for guiding and wide-field imaging.

9/15/2007 - Purchased TheSKY 6.0 to be used for telescope interface, auto-locating objects, guiding, and image acquisition.

9/10/2007 - Purchased ORION StarShoot II Solar System Imaging Camera which has a resolution of 1280x1024 and will capture 30fps video.  This will be used for Lunar and Planetary imaging by capturing .avi files which can then be processed using RegiStax.  It can also be used as a low-resolution guiding camera.

9/02/2007 - Purchased MEADE DSI Color CCD camera to be used for both guiding and color imaging of deep-sky objects.