ARGO
Astronomical Research Group of Oregon
ARGO was conceived and built in 1997 by Keith Allred, Tom Carrico, Jim Girard, Dennis Luse, and Bill McLaughlin. The site is located on ten acres in the remote Central Oregon high desert plateau region. At 4000ft elevation it hosts inky black skies and cool night time temperatures. Each of us has a 10 x 12 propane heated shed with it's related concrete pad with piers. Each pad has underground electrical conduit that goes to the shed for power, camera, and telescope controls. The site has a shower, toilet and sink which are supplied by a 1600 gallon water tank. Electrical power is provided by a battery bank with an inverter to supply 110 vac to each shed. The batteries are charged via solar panels.
We should have named it "SBIG ACRES" as all of us own a SBIG ST7 camera; there are also 3 ST4's, and 1 ST6 owned by the participants. Forget it "sticky fingers" as all equipment is taken from the site when we leave!!!
Below are images of the "ARGO 5" and their equipment:
Keith Allred
Keith's 16" f/9 Optical Guidance Richie is the largest at the site. It is mounted on an Astro-Physics AP1200 GOTO mount. He also has a 5" f/9 Astro-Physics refractor mounted piggyback for a finder scope and for CCDing/astrophotography.The tan box setup (lower left) houses a remote terminal linked to his computer inside. He can control the camera and scope at the pad as well as inside. Both Keith and Bill have this setup.
Camera equipment: ST7 (non-antiblooming), ST6, CFW8 color wheel, SBIG adaptive optics.
Tom Carrico
Tom has a 6" f/9 AstroPhysics refractor on a AstroPhysics AP800 mount. He also uses his 3" Takahashi on an EM10 mount.
Camera equipment: ST7 (non-antiblooming), ST4, Taurus Astro camera.
Jim Girard
Jim uses a Meade 10" f/10 optical tube mounted on a Celestron G11 mount.
Camera equipment: ST7 (antiblooming)
Dennis Luse
Dennis uses a Meade 10" f/6.3 LX200 with a Celestron C5 spotting scope sometimes used for CCDing/astrophotograhy
Camera equipment: ST7 (non-antiblooming), ST4, CFW8 color wheel.
Bill McLaughlin
Bill has a 12.5" f/9 Optical Guidance Richie mounted on an AstroPhysics AP1200 GOTO mount. The smaller scope is a Celesron 8" f/10 optical tube assembly mounted on Celestron's G11 mount. He uses both for CCding and astrophotograhy.
Camera equipment: ST7 (non-antiblooming), ST4, CFW8 color wheel, SBIG adaptive optics. The tan box setup houses a remote terminal linked to his computer inside. He can control the camera and scope at the pad as well as inside. Both Bill and Keith have this setup.
Visit Bill's web site for views of his work. His link is on my "Other Astronomy Links" page.