One of the fun thigs about being an astronomy professor is getting to use the university observatory whenever I have a break from classes. This is especially so since the new building was erected and new telescopes installed. While I still have a lot of work left in trying to get the accurately polar aligned, I have been making good use of them from research and general observing. In adition to the university telescope, I also have my own. Recently I had all telescopes working and that was a busy night!!!! 2 20" PlaneWave telescopes, a 14" Celestron, 4 12" Meades, a 5" Meade achromat, and a 5" Jagers refractor. All of these doing CCD imaging. Thent here was my 18" dobsonian for visual observing! 10 telescopes in all! Plus using my DSLR for wide-field imaging. By the time dawn arrived I was getting tired, but it was a fun night! The only pain was trying to pack everything away. :-(
Getting ready for a busy night. My 18" dobsonian outside along with my 5" Jagers refractor and 14" Celestron. To the right in the dome is the university's 20" PlaneWave, while the roll-off roof building in the background has the rest of the telescopes. Illumination is from the 5 day old Moon.
Inside the roll-off roof building. At the rear is the Meade 5" achromat and my 20" PlaneWave. The other telescopes are all 12" Meades. I can see that I am going to have to start covering the computer monitors.... I had no idea it was so bright!!!
12 hours of images combined over the university observatory.