PLEASANT RIDGE
OBSERVATORY
Hello, Welcome to the website of Lee Cole . I can be reached at PleasantRidgeObservatories@gmail.com
The restoration on the 20 inch f5 Newtonian Sollee telescope is finished for the most part . The star testing results are
unbelievable. Many of the former design problems have been solved and lots of new whistles and bells have been added.This
should make viewing much more convenient. In addition to the scope transformation the photometer has also been modifed
and has its own deticated lap top for recording data. The ccd camera currently being used is a Mintron-62V1N fed to a flat
screen plasma for casual viewing and imaging is recorded throught the my pc and stored in a external hard drive.
The software for planning observing sessions I use is Stellarium ,it can be down loaded at http://www.stellarium.org/
for Free. The program I use for color Imaging is GIMP it can be downloaded free at www.gimp.org . The GIMP program cannot
handle FITS files effectively ,so to produce a color image you need to saving them in TIFF or JPEG files in DS9 or Iris .The ds9.
solfware can be downloaded from http://hea-www.harvard.edu/RD/ds9/ .The best part of DS9 is the Blinking object area of the
program .Blinking diferent images helps identifiy supernovae,asteroids,and other objects in movement across the sky or that vary in brightness.
The scope is currently mounted on a heavy steel plate with casters on it in my studio while it awaits the restoration of the 5.0 Meter Observa-Dome ,see it at www.observa-dome.com The primary objective of this web site is to post photos of the construction prossess of the 5.0 meter dome. The dome like the telescope had set unused for some 20+ years ,many of
the parts are badly rusted or missing . I have srarted the restoration process on the metal parts and will post the progress
on this site as they are avalable. Any MAS members who would like to help in this proccess let me know at the next meeting
and I will send out a e-mail on work day dates. The Memphis Astronomical Society web site is at www.memphisastro.com..
For sometime I have looked for other scopes like this one and have found a link to these photos .They are scattered about in
several file groups at . http://al-paslow.smugmug.com/ The construction of the foundation is concrete floor with block wall filled
with concrete and rebar steel. The door is steel on steel frame for added security. The thought was to go green on power but
that has changed I will run power out to the dome from my house. The dome site is located in the back field behind my home In
Arlingtion Tn.