Barden Ridge Observatory Home

Welcome to the Barden Ridge Observatory Home Page

The Barden Ridge observatory is a privately owned and operated by Peter Ward, and is located around 30km to the south of the Sydney central business district. Barden Ridge runs along the top of the Woronora River valley, with the Royal National Park to the east, Holsworthy Reserve and Heathcote National parks to the south. The observatory is used for astronomical equipment testing, CCD imaging and hydrogen alpha solar observations.

The dome is a Sirius 2.3 metre "home-model" fibreglass dome. It is around 16 years old now, having withstood numerous Sydney thunderstorms, downpours and hail with ease.
Apart from the occasional "cut and polish" using automotive cleaners, the observatory has required little maintenance.

It is fully robotic, with both shutter and dome rotation being controllable via a cat-5 network cable running to the house.

The system accessible via the internet, with full control over the Dome, telescope, mounting, CCD, instrument rotator and weather monitoring.
You can view a gallery of images here
Results from the CWAS David Malin Awards can be found here

The main telescope is a Carbon Truss RCOS 14.25" F7.9 Ritchey-Chretien. An Astro-Physics EDFS130 F6 and William Optics FD 80mm are both mounted on the main telescope.
Also used are an AP155 F7 refractor and Coronado SM90 Hydrogen Alpha filter for solar imaging.

The mount is a Paramount ME....note the counterweights!

The mount is attached to a 10" diameter, powder-coated steel pier, dyna-bolted to a concrete and brick column below the observatory deck.

Weather monitoring is carried out by a Boltwood Mark II weather sensor. It measures mean wind speed, humidity, cloud cover, ambient light and detects rainfall...plus the occasional arachnid that wanders under the lower sensor, thus closing the dome !

Things that make the observatory work better 1:

Robotic webcam

The Observatory is opposite Heathcote National park. Feathered and furry creatures come and visit. Many are protected species, unfortunately the equipment in the dome is not.
Things that make the dome work better 2: Delonghi de-humidifier, on a self timer that activates just before dawn. The clear plastic tube drains to underneath the observatory deck.

The carpeted floor has saved many an eyepiece and instrument from certain destruction.

.
The image at left is typical of the imaging performance the RCOS 14.25" telescope.

This deep image of the Horse Head nebula was taken over many nights, partly due to the very dim nature of the dust cloud, but mainly due the massive amount of sky glow from the Sydney urban sprawl.

Things that make the observatory better 3:
NPort USB to RS232 hub.

Essential for controlling the dome, filter-wheels etc.

The business end of the telescopes. The RCOS is fitted with a Telescope Control Centre (TCC) which controls and monitors:

Absolute focus,

fan speed,

ambient, primary and secondary temperatures.

secondary dew heater

Instrument rotator

The Precision Instrument Rotator (PIR) can rotate the CCD camera to a repeatable 0.1 of a degree for guide star acquisition.
The 11 megapixel SBIG STL CCD has Custom Scientific narrow band plus RGB 50mm filter sets, plus adaptive optics. Additional water cooling is also available to the camera can be cooled to around 50 degrees below ambient temperature.

A second Apogee U47 CCD (midband coated) camera is also used. Its quantum efficiency is extremely high, being around 90% or better (93% Peak QE) from blue through to H-Alpha light.
It is used with a SBIG CFW10 filter-wheel fitted with Custom Scientific SII, H-Alpha (3nm and 10nm) OIII filters plus Astro-Don RGB imaging filters.

Above: M8 taken from the observatory Below: NGC2070 Above: M83 spiral galaxy in Hydra, also from the observatory. Below: Sun in H-Alpha

Below: Summer thunderstorms Below: Total solar eclipse taken a few miles north west of the observatory :)

Some QuickTime VR movies, imaged near Mudgee NSW can be found at the links below

Southern Star trails (right) and associated web page

The Southern Milky way

(Windows users will need to install an Apple Quicktime player for their browsers to view these)

	The dome is a Sirius 2.3 metre "home-model" fibreglass dome. It is around 16 years old now, having withstood numerous Sydney thunderstorms, downpours and hail with ease. Apart from the occasional "cut and polish" using automotive cleaners, the observatory has required little maintenance. It is fully robotic, with both shutter and dome rotation being controllable via a cat-5 network cable running to the house. The system accessible via the internet, with full control over the Dome, telescope, mounting, CCD, instrument rotator and weather monitoring. You can view a gallery of images here Results from the CWAS David Malin Awards can be found here
The main telescope is a Carbon Truss RCOS 14.25" F7.9 Ritchey-Chretien. An Astro-Physics EDFS130 F6 and William Optics FD 80mm are both mounted on the main telescope. Also used are an AP155 F7 refractor and Coronado SM90 Hydrogen Alpha filter for solar imaging. The mount is a Paramount ME....note the counterweights! The mount is attached to a 10" diameter, powder-coated steel pier, dyna-bolted to a concrete and brick column below the observatory deck.
	Weather monitoring is carried out by a Boltwood Mark II weather sensor. It measures mean wind speed, humidity, cloud cover, ambient light and detects rainfall...plus the occasional arachnid that wanders under the lower sensor, thus closing the dome !
Things that make the observatory work better 1: Robotic webcam The Observatory is opposite Heathcote National park. Feathered and furry creatures come and visit. Many are protected species, unfortunately the equipment in the dome is not.	Things that make the dome work better 2: Delonghi de-humidifier, on a self timer that activates just before dawn. The clear plastic tube drains to underneath the observatory deck. The carpeted floor has saved many an eyepiece and instrument from certain destruction.
. The image at left is typical of the imaging performance the RCOS 14.25" telescope. This deep image of the Horse Head nebula was taken over many nights, partly due to the very dim nature of the dust cloud, but mainly due the massive amount of sky glow from the Sydney urban sprawl.	Things that make the observatory better 3: NPort USB to RS232 hub. Essential for controlling the dome, filter-wheels etc.
The business end of the telescopes. The RCOS is fitted with a Telescope Control Centre (TCC) which controls and monitors: Absolute focus, fan speed, ambient, primary and secondary temperatures. secondary dew heater Instrument rotator The Precision Instrument Rotator (PIR) can rotate the CCD camera to a repeatable 0.1 of a degree for guide star acquisition. The 11 megapixel SBIG STL CCD has Custom Scientific narrow band plus RGB 50mm filter sets, plus adaptive optics. Additional water cooling is also available to the camera can be cooled to around 50 degrees below ambient temperature.
	A second Apogee U47 CCD (midband coated) camera is also used. Its quantum efficiency is extremely high, being around 90% or better (93% Peak QE) from blue through to H-Alpha light. It is used with a SBIG CFW10 filter-wheel fitted with Custom Scientific SII, H-Alpha (3nm and 10nm) OIII filters plus Astro-Don RGB imaging filters.

Above: M8 taken from the observatory Below: NGC2070	Above: M83 spiral galaxy in Hydra, also from the observatory. Below: Sun in H-Alpha

Below: Summer thunderstorms	Below: Total solar eclipse taken a few miles north west of the observatory :)

Some QuickTime VR movies, imaged near Mudgee NSW can be found at the links below Southern Star trails (right) and associated web page The Southern Milky way (Windows users will need to install an Apple Quicktime player for their browsers to view these)