(This website is currently under construction)
Welcome to the Albireo Observatory website. The observatory is still under construction, just like this website, but progress is being made every week. The major work of building the dome has now been completed, but there are still many smaller tasks to be done before first light can happen. While this is a private observatory, once the build is finished, there are plans to create a public outreach program. Currently, the task of automating the dome’s azimuth and shutter drives is underway and only after that will the instruments be installed and aligned.
The observatory is tucked away in a quiet, rural area of the Potomac Highlands of West Virginia that has Bortle scale class 3 skies, and sits at an elevation of around 1120-feet.
The main structure is a twelve-and-a-half foot diameter Galvalume dome atop a round building with an elevated floor. Another larger building, about 300-feet distant from the dome, serves as a “warm room” and office, with both interconnected via a gigabit network.
The plan is to automate most functions of the observatory so it can be remotely operated. When completed, it will house a modified Celestron C-11 XLT 11-inch f/10 Schmidt-Cassegrain as the main telescope, an Astro-Tech 6-inch f/9 Ritchey-Chretion Astrograph for deep sky imaging, and a modified Orion 80mm f/5 refractor as an autoguider scope. There might even be a Coronado PST solar telescope included in the mix. All three (or four) telescopes will sit atop an Orion HDX-110 (Skywatcher EQ-8) heavy duty equatorial mount.
Click on the chart for more details of weather and viewing conditions.