After months of on-site preparation and weeks of transportation coordination, the Grand Mesa Observatory has finally taken delivery of our brand new SkyShed PodMax observatory dome! This behemoth came all the way down from Canada, and after being unloaded from the freight truck (where it was packed in with a lifetime supply of peanut butter) the 12.5ft-wide dome found its final resting location on GMO’s most-recently-poured concrete pad. We are still piecing together all of the gear the will be housed inside the dome, but GMO will be working with a coalition of scientists from universities all around the country to prepare the instrumentation package for proper academic use. At the moment this system will likely be centered around a 16" Ritchey-Chretien optical tube which will be loaded on a Paramount ME, and the imaging package will be built around one of the brand new FLI4040 cameras. As we continue to grow it is likely that the setup will too, but luckily there is plenty of headroom with the SkyShed Pod as the dome itself has a 44" slot that opens 22" past zenith to allow for a scope up to 32" in diameter!

The goal of this facility will differ from that of our main astroimaging facility, with the primary aim here being to provide an easily-accessible, research-grade system to various educational institutions and organizations free of charge. The dome will work on an appointment-based system that will ultimately grow in to a proposal based application as the dome's user-base increases. This system will be capable of conducting a wide array of tasks from photometry to spectroscopy to classical astrophotography, but other applications would not be unwelcome if you know of a team with more specific needs. By providing such powerful tools to our team members it is the hope of GMO that these scientists will be able to conduct better research, in less time, and with less red tape than would be found with typical University-grade setups. In many cases we will also just be providing the simple asset of darker skies than anything found near most schools, but whatever the need Grand Mesa Observatory would like to work with as many teams as we can reasonably accommodate! If you or someone you know works for an academic institution and thinks they could benefit from our services, please contact us using the form (found HERE).

GMO would like to thank all of the team members and volunteers who have been helping coordinate the delivery and get everything assembled. In particular, a special tip of the hat is owed to Chuck Burch who has been leading the assembly team for the dome itself, as well as leading our efforts to prepare the eventual scientific instrumentation packages. The dome is a multi-day setup procedure with a fully functioning crew, and without the help of folks like Chuck and his team it would probably have been a multi-week procedure. We will continue to update you on the progress of this facility, and we invite you to contact us with any further inquires you may have.

GMO Director Terry Hancock recently returned from his cross-country drive and annual visit to New York for NEAIC (North Eastern Imaging Conference), which was held at the Crowne Plaza in Suffern, NY on April 19th and 20th. NEIAC is a conference full of world class astrophotographers giving talks on different topics concerning astrophotography. Following the NEIAC conference Terry all attended the larger and more commercially diverse "NEAF" conference(North Eastern Astronomy Forum). This is the world's largest astronomy and space expo and it was held at the Rockland Community College on April 21st and 22nd. In the past Terry had driven from Michigan, which is less than half the distance (Grand Junction to New York is 2050 miles). Under normal circumstances he would have flown, but had a lot of material and equipment to set up at the booth for NEAF. All went well and Terry arrived on Wednesday afternoon.

As an official beta tester for QHY, and with Grand Mesa Observatory being an official testing station, Terry was invited by QHYCCD and Astrofactors (one of the US Dealer for QHYCCD) to assist for the first two days at NEAIC to answer technical questions regarding QHYCCD products. During that time Terry met and talked with many fellow astro-imagers from both the US and overseas, as well as a large number of QHYCCD users. This part of the trip also allowed Terry some first hand views of many new and exciting QHY products being release in 2018, including the especially-impressive QHY4040 scientific Monochrome CMOS camera.

Grand Mesa Observatory was truly on display for the first time here at NEAF, and to make a big first impression Terry brought a large full-color banner to advertise our services. In honor of the convention it was also on that Saturday when the equipment subscriptions were formally launched on the GMO website! There was a lot of interest in the subscription services, as well in regards to actual telescope hosting for private parties. It was an extremely busy couple of days with about a hundred GMO flyers were handed out, but Terry always looks forward to meeting astro-imaging friends from around the globe so the hustle and bustle were well worth it. There were a lot of questions concerning exactly how our subscription works and thanks to GMO's Assistant Director Isaac Garfinkle, we now have a comprehensive description on our “Equipment Rental Rates” page (which can be found here https://grandmesaobservatory.com/subscription-rentals/)

On the way back to Colorado Terry stopped to see long time friend and Imager Cliff Spohn to pick up his TAK E-180 which will be used at Grand Mesa Observatory in conjunction with his own TAK E-180 as a dual rig. We will use a QHY11M for Luminance and Narrow Band and on the other TAK E-180 we will use either a QHY367C or QHY128C to capture One Shot Color images. If all goes well this tandem setup will be added to our subscriptions.

Highlights of the trip back East included the following:

QHYCCD representative Kayla Bi is looking at the possibility of having Terry do a talk in China
We are looking at doing a GMO live presentation via Skype/Teamviewer for GMO to students in China
SkyWatcher Telescopes will be sending a 10” GOTO Dob Scope for Public Outreach use by GMO
Bruce Morrell from Astrofactors donated to GMO a QHY Mini guidescope and a new All Sky camera housing and fish eye lens to use with a QHY5 camera
Longtime friend and retired imager Andy D’Arienzo who lives on Long Island visited the booth and helped for a few hours. He donated 2 boxes of telescope and imaging accessories (dovetails, adapters and eyepieces)

A Second Dome for the Grand Mesa Observatory!

GMO Does NEAF