Major Upgrade for the River Ridge Observatory Robotic Research Telescope

RRT New Mount

I am happy to report that the RRORRT is back online and ready for use.
Back in November, the mount for the LX 200 gave out. Dr. Jeff Robertson was able to get funding for a new mount. The Astrophysics 1100GTO is more reliable and opens up greater opportunities for astrophotography and more precise observing runs with fewer errors.
A couple of weekends ago, Jeff, Chris Lasley, Danny Flippo and I met up at RRO to install the new mount.

On Friday, Jeff went up and mounted the LX200 OTA. Saturday evening Danny and Chris finished the installation and performed and necessary alignments and it had its first run last night. There may be some tweaks to the system in the coming weeks, but for all intents and purposes, the RRORRT is now available.
Thank you to Jeff for making this new mount happen, and to Danny and Chris for their expertise. And, a big thanks to you, our users. Your interest in and support for this project has taken it from “proof of concept” and helped the RRORRT to evolve into a more serious platform for photometry and astrophotography.
2016 is going to be an exciting year!

Stephen Caldwell, RRORRT Project Manager (CAAS)