Missing Observatories

TomasK

I miss some observatories, especially the RASA11 in Australia but also the two observatories from China.
There is also an observatory in Chile on the map but it has never been available.
Are the missing observatories just temporarily unavailable?

lukas_demetz

Hi @Thomas ,

the RASA is undergoing maintenance, and while it was clearly stated when selecting it some users still tried to submit requests - and were disappointed they did not run 🙂
So we decided to "hide" it for now.

The Chile one has been retired, the RC16 there never really "took off".

The two chinese ones are suffering some network issues (to put it mildly), but I am expecting them to come back online "for real" soon 🙂

SkG

Given the recent issues with focus and image-plane tilt on the iDK-20, I've been assessing which telescope to use in the near future to scope out some new targets. There are several interesting telescopes listed on the observatories network webpage that don't show up on the active planning screen though, and one that has been inactive for a month. What is their status?

Artec 200 Italy
Tecnosky RC8 Italy
alpha* Artec 200 - Lab 2 Italy
RC10 2BS Italy

In addition, the Tecnosky RC12 Italy has been offline since April 3rd.

lukas_demetz

Hi @SkG ,

right. The two Tecnosky ones (so, RC8 and RC12) shall come back online shortly.
The Lab 2 had a roof collision a few days ago and might be offline for a longer period, plus the owner had an accident with his motorcycle so it will definitively take longer there.

Generally, there are issues with most systems right now, and at least for "our" systems I am trying to sort them out one by one. The CDK500 in Spain has a bearing failure of the L500 mount, which needs to be sent back to the US for repairs (sigh).
The iDK20 seems to have some flexure with unclear source, in that case I am planning on swapping the OTA and imaging train with the upcoming TI450 f4 and a Moravian C5-100M, hopefully by the end of may.

We changed the dashboard a few weeks ago to not display the observatories which have been offline for longer periods by default. One can disable this filter if needed, but I figured it might help in choosing observatories which tend to work 🙂

SkG

Thanks for the update. Sorry to hear about the Lab 2 owner's accident and all of the other telescope issues. I'll watch for the return of the two Tecnosky RC systems.

lukas_demetz

The Tecnosky owner is now back in Italy, and he told me he will get them back working.

The CDK500 in Spain has a broken RA bearing, the mount is gonna be substituted with a ew one (please don't ask about the costs 😉 ). Shall happen within the next two weeks.

The new optics in Namibia, which are going to substitute the venerable iDK20, are a little delayed again. I hope we get it on-site by July. This is going to be a huge leap forward, as also the camera will be changed with a modern, huge CMOS 🙂

As for the different OpenSkygems systems, it feels a little like they come and go, which is a little to be expected. Our systems are so far here to stay 🙂