Rockland Observatory (933) is a private research observatory south of Sierra Vista, Arizona, working in the fields of astrometry and synoptic photometry, and in the engineering and programming of automated observing equipment.
Some of the recent research projects at Rockland Observatory have been:
Currently the observatory operates a 30cm telescope dedicated to astrometric and photometric research, and a 13cm astrographic refractor for ocassional high-precision astrometry. A KAF-1602E based CCD camera is the principle detector for both.
The 30cm instrument is robotically operated. It participates in a variety of projects and ad-hoc tasks, a small sample of which are described in the research section above. The principal configuration of this instrument provides a 21 minute by 14 minute field of view. During the summer of 2003, this instrument was moved from Rockland Observatory to nearby Discovery West Observatory.
The 13cm astrograph coupled with the observatory's CCD camera provides either a one degree by forty minute field of view, or a two degree six minute by one degree 22 minute field of view. The latter field size is adequate to perform astrometry using the Tycho-2 catalog over most of the sky.
The observatory performs astrometric reductions against the USNO A2, the Tycho-2, and occasionally against Bill Gray's GSC-ACT. We recently added the ability to use the UCAC catalog, and tests of these capabilities are being undertaken now. To date, photometry has been limited to relative photometry of synoptically varying objects, such as cataclysmic variable stars. The LONEOS.phot dataset is available for doing calibrations against more reliable references.
The RealSky is also available, written to disk, for convenient checking of transients.
The observatory is principally dedicated to the research interests of the local staff. They are Jeff Medkeff, Glen Sanner, and Tim Doyle. Bruce Gary serves as our principal local advisor. Solicitations for data are accepted and collaborations with other stations are frequent. When collaborating with others, we operate principally in service observing and queue scheduling modes, though we occasionally host on-site guest observers.
In addition, we accept student observers whose research activities support their instructors' curriculum. In the past, students have been principally high school students with some undergraduate college students. Interested teachers should contact us.
