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Started in 1996 the LTO (Little Thompson Observatory) is about to reach its design completion: two domes and two telescopes.
The two telescopes, an 18-inch Tinsley Cassegrain and a 24-inch Cassegrain were donated by the Telescopes In Education (TIE) program. The 18-inch was installed in 1999 and has had over 43,000 visitors since. The 24-inch arrived in 2006 and has been awaiting completion of the second dome to house it.
Since March 2008 volunteers have been working hard to construct the second dome, its building support and the telescope mounting pier. The telescope pier was installed in April 2008 as finish construction proceeded. The telescope base and new dome were installed in October 2009. Once the majority of the ‘dirty’ work was done the reassembly of the 24-inch telescope could be completed. The telescope optics, including the primary mirror, secondary mirror and focuser, and tertiary mirror were unpacked, cleaned and remounted. Only a few electro-mechanical components, such as the worm drives and associated electronics remain to be installed before the instrument sees ‘first light’ later in 2010.
All transportation, assembly, refurbishing and construction was done by volunteers.
