La Cañada, Ávila, Spain, the J87 observatory

The observatory was built in 2002 on private funding around an exent (the telescope is not mechanically coupled with the building) 2.5 m high concrete pier. The basement, 3.20 m on each side, is the control room. On the first floor are the .30 m (now .41 m) telescope, digital focuser, BVRI filter wheel and CCD all enclosed in a fiberglass dome.

A view of the original .30m telescope + CCD

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The telescope + CCD set was upgraded, now there's a 0.41m F10 Ritchey-Chrétien F10 telescope on a robust polar fork mount with a digital focuser, BVRI filter wheel and CCD camera.

There's also an auxiliar .20m F10 portable telescope for public observations and ready to move just in case, for instance asteroid ocultations.

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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