RE: My TASS Observatory

[Robert Creager <robert@carolinecreager.com>]

I had a friend who knows hardware once suggest using a
100 watt lightbulb as a nice, nearly 100 watt heater
for the hard drive.

If you feel adventerous, you could run a diskless
linux station, provided you can setup a BOOTP server
inside the house...

Rob

---- Michael Gutzwiller <deepsky@fuse.net> wrote:
> It's not easy to see in the pictures but the shelves
don't go all the way to
> the east and west sides of the enclosure but have a
1 1/2 inch gap between
> the shelf and the panel.  The enclosure also sits up
on leveling blocks that
> give about a 1 inch gap at ground level all the way
around.  This should
> allow heat to be dissipated without causing too much
adverse effect on the
> seeing.  The 7.5 arc second pixels help avoid seeing
problems anyway.  The
> computer system also will be quite minimal with a
100 MHz Pentium so not
> much heat is generated anyway.  In the winter the
only component much
> affected would be the disk drive and we can wait and
see if just leaving it
> always on is enough to keep it warm enough to avoid
errors.  If these become
> problems I can move the computer into the garage
which would require about
> 15 to 20 feet of cable to reach.
> 
> >From my calculations the north and south horizons
will not be limited by the
> enclosure as much as they will be limited by the
surrounding trees.  In that
> case I can get to about 40 degrees above the
horizon.  If my calculations
> are off I can always raise the camera platform a
bit.  In my suburban
> location it's much more important to shield the
system from the neighbor's
> lights than get the greatest expanse of sky under
view.
> 
> 
> Mike G.
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-tass@listserv.wwa.com
[mailto:owner-tass@listserv.wwa.com]On
> Behalf Of aah@nofs.navy.mil
> Sent: Friday, September 07, 2001 10:57 PM
> To: tass@listserv.wwa.com
> Subject: Re: My TASS Observatory
> 
> 
> Nice, Mike.  It is fun to see the different ways
people
> are enclosing these systems.  How are you going to
ventillate
> the computer, both keeping it warm in the winter and
cool
> in the summer without affecting the telescope just
above it?
> What sky limits does the slideoff roof place on the
north
> and south horizons?
> Arne
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
>