Hardware

The telescope was manufactured by DFM Engineering.

The main telescope is equipped with a five-port instrument box. On-axis, there is an on-axis ZWO CMOS Planetary CMOS camera with a NxM arcmin field of view. On another port, there is room for a dedicated off-axis auto-guider. The other three ports are reserved for other instrumentation and detector design.

The finderscope is equipped with a ZWO Deep-Sky CMOS camera which helps with calibration and is capable of auto-guiding the main telescope.

More than twenty filters are available that cover wide and narrow bands from the infra-red (IR) to the ultra-violet (UV).

 

The original imaging system attained first light on August 16, 2000, and the wide-field imaging system attained “second light” on September 23, 2004. The present configuration, described above, brought us to a “third light” in the late summer of 2022.

 

Telescope Specifications

  • 32″ ( 0.81 m ) f/8
  • Cassegrain, equatorial fork-mount
  • 256″ ( 6500 mm ) focal length
  • 31.7″/mm plate scale

Site Specifications

  • 39° 15′ 16.32″ N
  • 76° 42′ 34.2″ W
  • Elevation 95 m
  • True north is 18° counterclockwise w.r.t. the axis of the building.

Computers

Control Computer

  • CPU: Intel Pentium(R) 4
  • GPU: Nvidia GeForce 6200
  • Mobo: iEi IMBA-8650GN-R22
  • RAM: 2x1GB
  • PSU: Standard ATX 450w
  • Case: Proprietary DFM chassis/Desk
  • Storage: 500GB HDD
  • Other: Proprietary DFM Motor Driver ISA Card

Data Computer

  • CPU: Intel i7-12700
  • GPU: Nvidia RTX 3060 (Dell OEM)
  • Mobo: Asus TUF GAMING Z690-PLUS WIFI (DDR5 Variant)
  • RAM: 2x8GB DDR5-4800Mhz
  • PSU: Corsair RM 750w
  • Case: Lian Li 205 Mesh RGB
  • Storage: 500Gb SSD, 1TB HDD
  • Other: 10Gb Ethernet Expansion Card, USB2.0-to-RS232 Expansion Card

Cameras

Currently in Use:

Legacy Cameras:

  • SBIG CCD – original DFM camera

Filter Wheels:

  • ZWO EFWmini – 5 x 1.25” light filters
    • U – Ultraviolet
    • V – Visible
    • B – Blue
    • R – Red
    • I – Infrared

 

Cabinet Roy stole from some undisclosed physics building location