Situated 40 kilometers (25 miles) north of
Raleigh, North Carolina, is the Raleigh As-
star trails By David H. Levy
A Unique Observatory
W ould you like to visit our
club observatory? Im often
asked this question whenever
Im on the road, giving talks at various
star parties and astronomy conventions
across the United States and abroad. So
when I found out that I had a couple of
free hours one afternoon while visiting
Raleigh, North Carolina, in January
1999, I decided to accept the invitation
of members of the Raleigh Astronomy
Club (RAC) to see their observatory.
Sitting in a beautifully groomed hol-
low is a tall, narrow building that doesnt
look at all like an observatory, but it
houses a computer-controlled 0.6-meter
(24-inch) f/6.3 Newtonian telescope. Its
basic design is similar to the merry-go-
round observatory built in Ohio by the
famous comet hunter Leslie Peltier, only
four times bigger.
How did the club acquire this extraor-
82 October 2001 Sky & Telescope
dinary facility? Its story began in 1980,
when the Raleigh Parks and Recreation
Department helped the RAC purchase the
telescopes primary mirror, at the time
one of the largest mirrors to be owned by
an amateur organization. The Pyrex pri-
mary is 10 centimeters (4 inches) thick.
For some unknown reason, its back side
came with a steep f/1.5 curve, which
means the glass weighs a relatively light-
weight 57 kilograms (125 pounds). A
Dobsonian-type mount and trailer were
constructed in 1982, and the scope was
transported by a half dozen stalwart vol-
unteers for occasional public stargazing.
Since many people were reluctant to stand
12 feet high on a ladder to peer through
this behemoth, the telescope quickly lost
its popularity, at least for public use.
So the RAC was in a predicament it
had a beautiful telescope that wasnt
being used efficiently. This set the late
2001 Sky Publishing Corp. All rights reserved.
tronomy Clubs Morris Observatory. Named in
honor of the late RAC member Robert C. Mor-
ris, its building measures 4.3 meters (14 feet)
high and 2.4 by 3.6 meters at the base. It is
split in two the left half houses the tele-
scope, while the right half has the control
room and eyepiece station at the top of the
staircase. A small electric motor turns the
2,700-kilogram (6,000-pound) structure in
azimuth on a 6-meter-wide concrete pad.
Inset: A view of the control rooms windows
and the roof opening for the telescope. Un-
less otherwise noted, all photographs in this
article are by Mike Brooks.
club member Robert C. Morris to think-
ing. In 1985, just as Halleys Comet was
making its way to the inner solar system,
Morris proposed at an RAC meeting to
build a permanent observatory for the
24-inch. He even brought a small wood-
en model of his planned building to con-
vince the clubs telescope committee. His
idea was to mount the whole structure
on wheels. The narrow building, Morris
envisioned, would be divided into two
skinny halves: the left portion would
contain the telescope, and the right one
would have a built-in staircase that
would lead viewers to a platform from
which they could observe in comfort
through an eyepiece that is fixed in
height relative to the scope.
As fellow club members looked on in-
trigued or aghast, Morris went on to
show how the telescopes mirror end
would be raised or lowered using a
 ing is ready for use, a variable-speed, re- the objects position. Once the target is

heavy-duty steel cable and how the entire
building would rotate in azimuth. Discus-
sions ran late into the night; according to
club member Jerry Watson, many mem-
bers felt the design was too risky and they
wanted instead a traditional equatorial
mount. Fortunately, says Watson, the club
had several members with experience in
machining, building construction, and
computer control who argued that Mor-
riss design was indeed feasible.
A little more than a year later ground-
breaking began at a site west of Franklin-
ton, North Carolina, on a parcel of land
belonging to RAC members Carl and
Kathy Moreschi. Watson coordinated the
efforts of club members who volunteered
for construction duties. After several de-
lays due to other club commitments, the
project was finally completed in October
1994 at a cost of $7,000.
The building rests on hydraulic jacks
when not in use so that the four pairs of
20-cm steel and neoprene wheels dont
develop flat spots as they support the
three-ton structure. But when the build-
versible motor from an electric drill cou-
pled to a 200:1 gearbox and bicycle drive
chain turns the building around smooth-
ly. Not only does the motor have to move
the building and telescope, but it also has
to carry an additional load of up to 12
adults waiting in the control room and
staircase to look through the eyepiece! A
second drill motor is used to adjust the
scopes altitude. The observatorys power
and phone lines run through the build-
ings central pivot.
The RAC uses a vintage but rugged
8086 computer to point this monster
scope at a precise spot in the sky and
keep it centered on the target. Carl
Moreschi, who worked for IBM as a sys-
tems programmer for 25 years and now
writes programs for a small software
company, wrote the telescope-control
software. When an object is keyed into
the computer, the observatorys two drill
motors start turning, but they stop a bit
short of their destination to give the
building a chance to coast to a stop at
amateur astronomers
located, the computer tracks it in a series
of small steps, notes Moreschi, similar
to a hand-guided Dobsonian telescope.
A special joystick allows the operator to
make fine adjustments.
The optical quality of the telescope is
outstanding, says Moreschi. On a good
night we can push the magnification up
to 500. Were limited only by the build-
ings tracking accuracy.
The RAC holds two meetings each
month (every second and fourth Friday),
and one of them is devoted to using the
telescope for visual observations. For
more information about the clubs activi-
ties write to P.O. Box 10643, Raleigh, NC
27605, or call 919-460-7900; www.rtpnet
.org/~rac/.
The largest amateur telescope that David
Levy has ever used is Bob Summerfields 36-
inch Yard Scope. But he has also enjoyed
many views through Steward Observatorys
61-inch Kuiper telescope on Mount Bigelow
north of Tucson, Arizona.

Above: Some of the RAC members who regularly use the instrument
(from left): Mike Brooks, Steve Goodman, Phyllis Lang, Jim Pressley,
and Gary Held. Photograph by the author.

Left: The heart of Morris Observatory is a 0.6-meter (24-inch) f/6.3

Newtonian reflector with an insulated wooden truss tube. The tele-
scopes secondary mirror deflects light from the primary through one
of the altitude trunnions. An observer can then view the image with a
fixed-height eyepiece inside the adjacent heated control room. Rais-
ing or lowering the scopes mirror end is done with a heavy-duty steel
cable coupled to a small electric motor. Both altitude and azimuth
motors are in turn controlled by a computer for precise aiming and
tracking. A whole-house attic fan sucks cold outside air into the build-
ings telescope side to keep the optics at ambient temperature.

2001 Sky Publishing Corp. All rights reserved. Sky & Telescope October 2001 83