| Organization | Miami Valley Astronomical Society |
|---|---|
| Location | Dayton, OH |
| Coordinates | |
| Altitude | meters (feet) |
| Webpage | [1] |
| Telescopes | |
| Unnamed Telescope | 50cm Dall-Kirkham Cassegrainian Reflector |
Apollo Observatory is an astronomical observatory owned by Boonshoft Museum of Discovery and operated by the Miami Valley Astronomical Society at Boonshoft Museum of Discovery. It is located at Boonshoft Museum of Discovery in Dayton, Ohio.
The observatory is named after Project Apollo and was dedicated in 1969. Because of its location in the vicinity of a major Air Force research and development arm at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (WPAFB), the it has benefited from an infusion of top-notch technical talent. With funds raised by both the Museum & the Miami Valley Astronomical Society (MVAS), a design by Richard Buchroeder was selected and built by members of the Society, many of whom worked in optics and engineering disciplines for the Air Force. Due to the selected design, the optical train was complex and turned out to be problematic to maintain. It was therefore later modified to a simpler Dall-Kirkham Cassegrainian design.
The original building & the 50cm (20-inch) telescope located in the dome were designed under the advice & guidance of MVAS members. The original building contained an optical laboratory complete with a shock-isolated optical test bench. It also contained space on the first floor where mirror grinding and polishing was performed.
The remodeling of the Museum in 1991 resulted in the addition of a Digistar Planetarium at the expense of the MVAS optical shop areas.
The second floor of the Apollo Observatory contains a large meeting room where monthly meetings and social gatherings are held. Adjacent to the meeting room is the MVAS library where members may check out most of the holdings for their use. The 50cm telescope is also located on the second floor, just to the south of the meeting room.
The MVAS claims that the 50cm telescope is one of the largest telescopes available to the amateur astronomer in South-West Ohio, although increased light pollution combined with the thermal effects of the building limit its usefulness for serious amateur study.
More available info- List of observatories
- Apollo Observatory Homepage. Apollo Observatory. Retrieved on Dec 15, 2005.
- Miami Valley Astronomical Society. Apollo Observatory. Retrieved on March 13, 2005.
Related articles - Astronomical observatories in Ohio, Dayton, Ohio, Museums in Ohio
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- This page was last modified by Admin. Previous modification to this article was done on 10:15, 29 Nov 2006 by Wikipedia user Saxbryn. Based on work by Wikipedia user(s) CRKingston, AppleRaven, Dual Freq, Rayc and Ligulembot & Anonymous user(s) of Wikipedia. Click here to view authors profile Pub date - 2009-05-15 10:15:49 Related resources:
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