The Aloe Ridge Observatory  

The Aloe Ridge Observatory is once again up and running after a hiatus of a couple of months due to a problem with the LX200 computerised drive. Alex Richter 'phoned me a few days ago to tell me the good news and invited me across to see the 16" in action and to meet the resident astronomer. Also, Meade had cleared the memory of the LX200 while repairing it and the Longitude and Latitude were no longer correct, so Alex needed me to bring along a GPS to get correct positions for the observatory.

The astronomer is a young lady by the name of Lisa who is a post-graduate student of Prof. Dunsby's at the University of Cape Town.   She has spent the last couple of weeks getting up to speed on the 16" LX200 and all it's associated paraphernalia such as CCD cameras,  both still and video, and the many different lenses and filters.  Alex has also bought and installed the latest Meade software for controlling the telescope and the cameras, so she had to get used to operating the 'scope and camera(s) via the new computer interface.

Well,  that Monday evening turned out to be quite a treat for me as well as my Dad-in-Law whom I invited along to see the setup.  The seeing was pretty good,  and I saw the great nebula in Orion as never before - the nebula itself was very clearly visible and the Trapezium stars crisply in focus - large and quite beautiful.   This, however, was long after my initial arrival.   When we first arrived, we discovered that news of the return to service of the 16", had leaked out to the conference centre guests, many of whom were up in the observatory enjoying an impromptu lesson in Astronomy from Lisa.  I set up the GPS to find the position and then left it to it's job and settled down to answering some of the questions being asked - these were coming so thick and fast, it was more than one person could handle.  I really don't think that there is anyone out there who is totally uninterested in the sky and most of the variety of questions reflected this interest.

After an hour or so,  the audience had dwindled somewhat, and we could get down to the business of setting up the position for the observatory.  We took the reading from the GPS and entered it into the LX200 drive.  ( This time we also wrote it down AND I saved the position in the GPS itself ).  If, perchance, the Longitude and Latitude get cleared again, finding the correct data will now be a lot easier.

With the telescope now properly set up, we proceeded to do a brief tour of the heavens - starting with the Orion Nebula. We saw several wonderful sights including the Large Magellanic Cloud, Pleiades, Sirius ( I didn't see the companion star ), Alpha Centauri, Acrux, the Jewel box ( beautiful ) Centaurus A ( I didn't see much there ) and finally Omega Centauri.  The views through the 16" are quite magnificent and I think I'm going to save my pennies for the next fifty years or so to buy one for myself.

We have been discussing with Alex, the idea of having a Society Braai and viewing evening out at Aloe Ridge to enable YOU  to see the 16" LX200 and to enjoy the clear skies just a little way out of Jo'burg.  I hope this comes to fruition as I am sure you will all enjoy the experience.

Chris Penberthy