The Control Room of the 40" Telescope at Mt. Laguna Observatory

Below are images of the contol room taken in 2002 March. Despite the apparent clutter, every piece of equipment is in working order and in use (though not always at once).

photo of Prof. Welsh in the control room
The two leftmost monitors display OMICS, a home-grown bit of software/hardware that controls the pointing of the telescope, keeps track of time, etc. The computer that runs OMICS also allows the astronomer to connect to the outside world via the HPWREN. The small monitor (not turned on) is for the autoguider, and furthest to the right is the computer used for data aquisition. This UltraSparc uses the software voodoo to control the instrument. IRAF and ximtool (or SAOimage) are also used for real-time data analysis and quality control.


Prof. Welsh wearing heavy coat, in the control room
Along the shelf above the desk from left to right we see the telescope master power controller and several buttons for making fine adjustments to the telescope's position or focus; then the filter slide control box and finally the spectrograph controller. On the topmost shelf sits the Heath monitor showing current telescope pointing, the computer hardware, and the HPWREN connections. In the background you see the NIRIM equipment rack and on the righthand side is the weather station (and the all important stereo system!). The door in the back leads to the telescope.
Dr. Welsh is holding an essential tool for all-night observing: a big cup of coffee! He's also sporting typical research attire...


Prof. Welsh at work in the control room
A different view of the control room. In the background you can see the control for the mirror cover, etc. Way in the back there is a room with a fridge, coffee maker, microwave oven, and of course, a toilet!


photo showing Prof. Welsh at work, red lights
Ok, get to work! The lights are kept low and red, to keep our eyes adapted to for night vision. The control room is reasonably warm, but the astronomer often has to go outside to the telescope, were it could be 40 degrees colder! So a hat, thermals, gloves, etc, are essential in the winter.
(In the forground you see a laptop for Prof. Welsh's ``day job'' - in those few moments between collecting data, he prepares his lectures for the next day. Up until maybe 4:30am, Prof. Welsh will sleep for 3 hours then drive down to campus to give his lectures, etc.. Then back up to Mt. Laguna, maybe catch an hour or two of sleep, then up all night again! It's not easy, but he wouldn't trade it for anything - it's exciting and great fun to be a research astronomer!)


These digital images of the 40" telescope and control room at SDSU's Mt. Laguna Observatory were piped down to campus via the high-speed wireless network HPWREN. This high speed link brings substantial research and educational capabilities to MLO.

The 40-inch telescope is the prime research telescope at MLO. For more information on the telescope and instruments, see the MLO 40-inch WWWeb page.

This page was last updated on 2002 Mar 26.