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The
picture on the right shows the fully motorized 4 meter dome (from ScopeDome) of
the Onjala observatory. Supplier of the dome was
Astrolumina (Mr. M. Breite). The parts of the dome were
brought from Poland to Walvis Bay by container ship and then transported by
truck to Onjala.
The 20 square meters vestibule of the dome is used as
the common room for the guests of the lodge during the evening events.
Additionally, some of our private equipment for the 3 meter dome is stored
here. The entire building was built under the guidance of Heiner Soltau by
workers of the lodge. You can find picture galleries from the building shell to
the mounting of the instruments
here.
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| All preview pictures can be enlarged by clicking on
them. |
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The
load bearing element of the Onjala telescope is a GTO 1200 mount by
AstroPhysics. Fixed on the mount are:
- Zeiss APQ refractor
(150/1.200 mm), a
- Celestron C14 (356/3.900 mm)
and a
- - Zeiss AS (80/800 mm) as
guiding telescope
The telescope is mainly used
for visual astronomical observations by the guests of the lodge. Of course, the
equipment can also be used for photographic as well as Webcam
observations. |
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The
whole equipment was previously situated in a 3.2 meter dome at the
Rooisand Desert Ranch
(where a new telescope was mounted in the Summer of 2013) and was bought by
Onjala lodge in 2012. For visual observations a Baader Binocular with matching
oculars is available.
After the evening events we can use the telescope
for our own observations. The Celestron 14 was hand selected from several
candidates and has a remarkably high optical quality, impressively demonstrated
by our
pictures of the moon. open star clusters and large-area
nebula.
The Zeiss refractor is a great
telescope to photograph
open star clusters and
large-area nebula. |
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| The picture shows Paech during the first test
observations - still using an old ladder - after the mounting in April
2013.. |
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| All Images and all Content are ©
by Franz Hofmann + Wolfgang Paech |
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