Free image data from the AG Optical Systems new observatory in northern Alabama is now available. The company has uploaded to DropBox initial data acquired over the past couple of months for NGC 3628 The Hamburger Galaxy, M65, and Markarian’s Chain. All of the data has been acquired using Voyager Astrophotography Automation Software.
According to AG Optical Systems Dave Tandy, “The data is raw and includes bias, dark, flat, and light frames. As we are still tweaking the 14.5″ iDK imaging train a bit, the flat data relevant to a specific object is included in the object folder. Please contact AG Optical Systems if you would like access to the data. We’ll need your email address so we can send you an invitation to the DropBox folder.”
As the AG Optical Systems observatory acquires more data they will continue to upload it to DropBox and announce it on the company’s Facebook page.
The observatory currently houses two premium imaging systems:
(1) AG Optical Systems 14.5″ F6.7 quartz astrograph
– Software Bisque Paramount MEII equatorial mount on 10″ Paramount pier
– ZWO ASI6200 full frame camera with EFW LRGBHa filters (we’re tweaking the filter setup to minimize vignetting)
– Borg 50mm piggyback guidescope with ASI120 guide camera
– Ultimate Power Box V2
– The SkyX
– TPoint pointing model
– PHD2 guiding software
– Optec TCF3 FocusLynx focuser
(2) Stellarvue SVX102T with flattener/reducer (535mm focal length)
– 3″ Feathertouch with Optec focus control
– Software Bisque Paramount MX+ equatorial mount on 8″ Paramount pier
– ZWO ASI6200 full frame camera with EFW LRGBHa filters
– Williams Optics 50mm piggyback guidescope with ASI120 guide camera
– Ultimate Power Box V2
– The SkyX
– TPoint pointing model
– PHD2 guiding software
The observatory is a 24′ x 10′ roll off roof design with roof automation provided by the SkyRoof system from Interactive Astronomy. Weather data is collected by the SkyAlert system from Interactive Astronomy.
As Tandy notes, “The reducer on the Stellarvue SVX102T shows some star distortion towards the edges of full frame images so you will likely need to crop that data. We have a flattener on order that should provide full frame correction and we’ll get it installed when it arrives.”
He also commented, “We have several other scopes that we plan to rotate through the observatory including an AG Optical Systems 12.5″ F3.9 Harmer Wynne, an 8″ F15 Mak with TEC optics, an 8″ F20 Mak binoscope with TEC optics, a 280mm F12 SCT with Lichtenknecker optics, a 10″ F15 Dall Kirkham with Ostahowski optics, and our lineup of 10″ to 20″ iDK F6.7 premium astrographs.”
Shown in the accompanying image is the first light image from the observatory. It consists of about 20 hours of LRGB data of NGC 3628 The Hamburger Galaxy collected using the AG Optical 14.5″ system. The data was processed by Patrick Sparkman.
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