The Haggart Observatory Telescopes

The tower dome houses our 24-inch (f/4.8) Newtonian reflector. This is our biggest "light bucket" telescope and provides beautiful views of dim deep-space objects such as galaxies, nebulae and globular clusters.

The telescope was built by Steven Swayze of Portland. The tube sections are made from laminated hardwood and are connected by square-section aluminum trusses. The 500-pound tube assembly rests in a Dobsonian-style mount riding on Teflon "O" pads which allows full movement with just hand pressure.

The mount sits on a motor-driven, nested-cone equatorial table which allows tracking of objects for up to 45 minutes without adjustment. The equatorial table was designed and fabricated by the Danziger Telescope Group in Santa Fe, Texas.

Mounted on the main telescope and aligned with it is a 4" refractor. The refractor provides smaller but sharper images of bright objects such as planets and binary stars.

The 24" telescope cannot safely be used for viewing objects high overhead (the eyepiece is just too high up for the ladder), and because of tower vibration, it does not perform well on small objects such as planets and "planetary" nebulae, which are best viewed at high power.

For objects high in the sky, we use this 13" Dobsonian reflector - also a good-sized "light bucket" - on the tower deck. Less sensitive to tower vibration than the 24", it also provides our best views of small objects (such as planets) requiring high power. "Big Blue" is on loan to us from the CCC Science Department.

Both telescopes are aimed by means of a telrad, which provides a bulls-eye with a dimmer switch for targeting objects. The telrad does not magnify; the operator has to be able either to spot the target object naked-eye to home in on it, or "star-hop" to it.

The Observatory also has 11x80 astronomical binoculars which we use on the tower deck for viewing objects such as open clusters, which require low power and a wide field of view.

We have several additional telescopes for visitors to try out with our Telescope Coaches at the "telescope shed" area:

• 10" (f/4.5) Dobsonian reflector
• 4" refractor (with pier-mount & drive)
• 4.5" Dobsonian reflector