La Caņada, Ávila, Spain, the J87 observatory
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The observatory was built around a tall, 2.5 m high pier, the basement floor is a square about 3.20m on each side and serves as a control room. On the first floor, circular, is the 12" LX200 telescope CCD equiped all enclosed by a fiberglass dome.
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In this picture, the opened observatory cools to ambient temperature on a sunset, just before observations. At the same time, the CCD camera is cooling down to -30 C below ambient.
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The pier foundation is a concrete cube 1.5m on the side.
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A view of the telescope, on the right the CCD, an SBIG ST9 cooled camera
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Two views of the observatory, on a clear winter Sun rise (left) and a more uptodate photo (December 2006) under the snow.
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The control room
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The Meade LX200 12" telescope and the observation window shutters, these are moved by two Firgelli linear actuators controlled from the observatory's PC
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Wind vane and Anemometer
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The Control PC
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