Description
Νight observation
What to expect to see and hear at the observatory!
The night guide—an astronomer and the observatory’s owner—will welcome you in English, German, and Greek. With a brief introduction to astronomy and what is currently visible and worth observing each night, aided by the Stellarium astronomy program, attendees will learn in just a few minutes what they will see in the sky. The Stellarium planetarium program is projected onto a large TV screen so everyone can see. Observation of the Moon and the planets is conducted using the large catadioptric Celestron Schmidt-Cassegrain C11 telescope. For deep-sky objects such as star clusters, planetary nebulae, and distant galaxies, stargazers have the privilege of connecting their smartphones via a local WiFi network to a highly specialized device—a camera. Through this camera, they can view the image captured by the telescope in real time. What’s exciting about this camera is that within minutes, stargazers can see the image on their mobile phones and, finally, save the photo to their device. On nights when the Moon is visible, the astronomer takes a photo of the Moon with your cell phones directly through the telescope’s eyepiece. Astronomy is interesting in theory, but especially in practice.
Please note that the Moon is not visible every night, depending on its phase, and the planets are visible depending on the season.
The two observatories at the Rhodes Observatory focus on observing deep-sky objects such as galaxies, nebulae, the Moon, and the planets.
In the main 4-meter-diameter observatory, where nightly observations with groups take place every evening, various astronomical instruments are installed depending on their intended use. The following telescopes are mounted on a SkyWatcher AZ-EQ6 altazimuth mount: A Celestron Schmidt-Cassegrain C11″ (280mm) with a focal length of 2800mm and a focal ratio of f/10. A large Skywatcher Equinox-100 Pro 100mm 900mm ED-APO Refractor Telescope. A small auxiliary telescope with a focal length of 500mm. And a Skywatcher ED80 ProSeries refractor telescope with an 80mm aperture and 600mm focal length, with a focal ratio of f/7.5, which is used exclusively for solar observation and photography during the day. The observatory features 1¼” and 2″ eyepieces with focal lengths ranging from 7mm to 56mm for various magnifications, as well as 1.5x and 3x Barlow lenses.
The auxiliary observatory, featuring a dome with a diameter of 2.8 meters, houses a MEADE LX200 ACF 14″ reflector telescope mounted on an altazimuth mount. It is a powerful telescope that allows the observer to view objects in the sky up to 150 million light-years away. The resolution on the Moon’s surface can reveal details as small as 200 meters, allowing us to distinguish small craters and hills of that size.
Measurements taken with an SQM (Sky Quality Meter) in the area to assess the quality of the night sky showed values of 19.5–20 (mag/arc sec²).
