spectro-aras.com

We live on Whidbey Island in the Pacific Northwest (Washington State, USA) where we enjoy the lush greenery fed by frequent rain and a cool marine climate. I built an observatory (http://www.tinyblue.com) in our front yard and have been using it for star parties, astrophotography, photometry and most recently spectroscopy on those occasions when the sky is clear. My focus for several years was on photometry of variable stars and I have submitted about 1100 observations to the AAVSO.

Ours is an avid eclipse chasing family and we had good luck observing the total solar eclipse of 2017 in Eastern Oregon (https://vimeo.com/240307174)

Inspired by recent developments in amateur spectroscopy, I would like to start by resurrecting my old SBIG Deep Sky Spectrograph (DSS-7) and trying to generate spectral profiles suitable for sharing.

David

Tinyblue Observatory
(Name inspired by Carl Sagan's book, Pale Blue Dot)

Hi David and welcome to ARAS!

I think possibly you attended the AAVSO-SW 2020 workshop as my eye caught the fact that someone said hello from Whidbey Island. I am quite familiar with Whidbey Island since I was born and raised in Seattle. I have a very good friend who lives in Greenbank, just northeast of you off N. Bluff Road. Quite an impressive observatory you have built and a leap of faith with western Washington weather but hopefully you benefit from the rain shadow effect from the Olympic mountains. I quite enjoyed taking a quick look at a few of your pictures on your website and note that we were there standing atop Kilimanjaro enjoying the views just two years before you

I am not specifically familiar with the DSS-7 spectrograph, but I am sure there are others here on the forum that would be able to help you should you have any questions. And don’t be shy to ask questions as this is a very friendly and helpful group of fellow astronomers.

Woody Sims