Sorry for the lack of updates, it turns out that the Ritchey–Chrétien telescope we installed had faulty optics so we ended up replacing that with another mirror cell that seems to be fine, we have also had a couple of nasty storms in Auckland recently, the first storm knocked the power off when a tree fell over the power cable that connects the observatory to the power grid and the second one damaged the shutter of the dome, the observatories neighbour Peter McLeod repaired the shutter quickly and for free which was very much appreciated by the Auckland Astronomical Society council, Peter has now also repaired the Dome from the rotting skirting and the mold and moss growing on the dome exterior the dome also has a nice new shiny paint job now.
<- Steve Hennerley and Andrew Buckingham replacing the faulty optics in the Ritchey–Chrétien telescope.
Moving forward we are looking to get the power restored then testing out the new optics with a new QHY ColdCMOS camera on loan from Astronz, hopefully we should be back in action soon.
<- Despite all the setbacks the one really positive thing that has been accomplished this year is the repair and restoration of the Kumeu Observatory dome, Peter McLeod did an exemplary job.
Posted by Jonathan Green
