2004 Annual Meeting

The Centre's observatory, the Fred Lossing Observatory (FLO) near Almonte, continued to operate through the past year providing members with free access to a reasonably dark site to set up their own observing equipment. For an additional fee of $35 per year, qualified members also have access to the heated club house with assorted astronomical reference material, and use of the 16 inch Newtonian telescope on a fork mount with equatorial drive housed in a permanent observatory, and a portable 10 inch Newtonian telescope on a Dobsonian mount. This year there were 31 members who subscribed for the additional usage fee, so-called "key holders", and many other members used the site with their own equipment.

For the most part, things continued to operate normally with the usual basic maintenance; contracted snow clearance of the access road three times during the winter, and grass and weed cutting on the parking lot and around the observatory, and weed whacking and tree pruning along the access road in the summer. There were in addition, a few other more noteworthy items.

In January the roof drive mechanism was upgraded. Ever since the observatory was built, a steel cable on a modified boat winch was used to pull the roof off and on the observatory. Unfortunately, the cable had a strong tendency to slip and/or tangle and was a continuing source of irritation to many users. The new drive uses a roller chain driven by a sprocket (as on a bicycle) and is much more positive and trouble free than the old system. After almost a year of use, there have been no reports of problems.

In June the Centre received a donation of a Coulter 13 inch Newtonian telescope on a Dobsonian mount. The instrument is in essentially new condition. The only issues are those of vintage Coulters; poor tube ventilation and a primitive focuser. The unit will be put into service at FLO as a portable scope when the upgrades are completed.

In August the observatory was broken into and the box of eyepieces and the fire extinguisher were stolen. Fortunately, there was no damage to the telescope or other items in the building. The broken door was repaired and reinforced, and operation continued with users supplying their own eyepieces for the time being.

In October Council approved the purchase of a set of eyepieces supplied by Focus Scientific at a substantial discount. The funds for this came from the accumulated proceeds of the "after meeting refreshments" supplied by Art and Ann Fraser for many years. Many thanks to the Frasers for making this eyepiece replacement an easy option.

We continue to hold the C-14 telescope, that was donated some years ago, in storage. It is used from time to time for public star parties and similar events. A longer term goal is to build further observatory buildings on site so the C-14, 10-inch Newtonian and the 13 inch Coulter can be permanently housed in a fashion that makes them readily usable by qualified members. With the completion of some other Centre projects that have been absorbing a lot of volunteer time and energy, the time is now ripe to begin thinking seriously about FLO expansion.

This page last modified: July 21, 2005