Camp Cullom’s Prairie Grass Observatory just took delivery of a new dome for its 7″ Meade Refracting Telescope. The $23,000 Dome will be assembled by volunteers in the next several weeks. Camp Cullom expects the telescope to be installed in the new dome by winter.
The SkyShed Pod Max 12.5 foot dome will have an electric turning rotation motor and automatic electric shutter opening for modern ease of opening and closing the facility. The refracting telescope will be used in conjunction with the Observatory’s 28 Inch computerized Dobsonian scope and its 16 inch Schmitt-Cassigrain Meade LX 200 scope and Large binoculars. The Dome Scope will be particularly good at viewing large open clusters like the famous Double Cluster in Perseus or moon and planetary viewing. Prairie Grass Observatory also has the “Galileo Gallery” to view space movies and laser light constellation talks for visitors.
Prairie Grass Observatory Trustee Andy Schilling has led the Dome Project which was conceived several years ago. The old dome had to be taken down because the leaking roof was not repairable which made the old dome unusable.
To view the video below, be sure to give it a few seconds for the action and narrative to begin.
https://youtu.be/YgAcHgVNZxE
Prairie Grass Observatory is one of the largest observatories in the State of Indiana and hosts several open houses annually. The Observatory is the site of one of the largest Star Parties in the Midwest, the Indiana Family Star Party. The Indiana Family Star Party for 2018 is July 13th and 14th.
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