Sierra Stars Observatory

Sierra Stars Observatory is an automated robotic facility. By this we mean that the observatory - telescope, camera, filter wheel, dome, scheduling and so on run automatically without a human attendant required to operate the entire complex system through an observing run. Our system is the culmination of more than a decade of research and development by Optical Mechanics, several universities and research organizations around the world, and the contributions of numerous individuals. Literally several thousands of man hours of work were dedicated to creating the state-of-the-art robotic system that comprises the Sierra Stars Observatory.

Location/Environment

The Sierra Stars Observatory is located in the south end of the Carson Valley in Alpine County California about two miles from the Nevada state line. The latitude and longitude coordinates are +38 48' 39" N and 119 46' 30" W. The elevation of the observatory is 5,070 feet MSL.

The semi-desert climate provides over 200 clear nights (and sunny days) per year with low relative humidity. During the summer months, high temperatures average around 90 F; during the winter highs average around 45 F. Average annual rainfall is approximately 11 inches and average annual snowfall is 22 inches.

The sky at the observatory site is very dark with a small amount of light pollution limited to directly north towards Carson City and Minden/Gardnerville in Nevada.

Equipment

Telescope

The observatory's core instrument is a 0.61-meter (24-inch) F/10 Optical Mechanics Nighthawk CC06 telescope. The Nighthawk CC06 is a high-precision automated/robotic telescope with superb Classical Cassegrain optics fabricated by OMI's president James Mulherin.

The observatory control software is Talon, a Linux-based system developed over 10 years by OMI and now available as Open Source code for custom development. Talon controls the entire observatory system (telescope, CCD camera, filter wheel, dome, and so on) for automated and direct control, locally and remotely. For a detailed description and specifications of the telescope and Talon see the Optical Mechanics, Inc. web site (www.opticalmechanics.com).

CCD Camera

The primary imaging instrument is a Finger Lakes Instrumentation ProLine camera. This is a state of the art research-grade CCD camera with triple-stage cooling and capable of maintaining stable temperatures to -65C below the ambient temperature. The camera contains a Kodak KAF-09000 3056 x 3056 pixel CCD chip with 12-micron pixels giving an image scale of 0.4 arc seconds/pixel un-binned and 0.8 arc seconds/pixel binned 2 x 2. The area of the chip is greater than a 35mm format camera providing a field of view of 21 x 21 arc minutes. The KAF-09000 chip has a high quantum efficiency (69% peak).

Filter Wheel and Filters

Our Finger Lakes Instrumentation ProLine CFW-4-5 filter wheel is designed to integrate with our ProLine camera. The filter wheel holds four scientific-grade Astrodon SCHÜLER Johnsons-Cousins 50mm square filters for photometry and tri-color imaging. Our standard (default) filter wheel holds B-V-R-I (Blue, Visual [Green], Red, and Infrared) photometric filters and a "clear" opening without a filter. Additional filter wheels and filters will be added in the future and clients with special filter needs can make arrangements for using their own filters.

Dome Building
	The observatory building has two rooms - the dome room (which contains the telescope) and a control room. The dome room houses a 15-foot Technical Innovations Pro-Dome modified with custom hardware, electronics and software to integrate with Talon for automated operation with the telescope.