EVENFALL
THE CASTLE OF CLOUDS
Welcome to my observatory! Here is where most of my images of the cosmic wonders are made. Nicknamed "Castle of clouds" the observatory is located in Varkaus, Finland. Behind it is one of the observatories that belongs to amateur astronomical association Warkauden Kassiopeia. You can find more about them here.
The telescope in the observatory operates automatically, with multiple computers controlling the functions and the building itself. This system is capable of running throughout the night without requiring human intervention, enabling the acquisition of vast amounts of exposure time with ease. Most of the deep sky photographs featured on this site have an exposure time ranging from 20 to 40 hours, and the longest projects may contain upwards of 60 hours of integration time. Currently, the observatory houses a custom 250/1175mm Newtonian reflector nicknamed "F.R.A.N.K." (Funky Reflector for Absorbing Nebulas and Kooky celestial bodies), with seven position filter wheel and ASI2600MM Pro -camera dedicated for deep sky imaging. The entire assembly is mounted on an american made Losmandy G11 equatorial mount.
The observatory is also equipped with an all sky camera, Sky Quality Metering system and a weather station. These systems monitor the enviroment in real time. The all sky camera is also used to detect meteors entering our planets atmosphere automatically. Purpose of this system is to contribute to the amateur meteor detection community. With multiple cameras across the country hosted by other astronomers it is possible to triangulate a path of a possible meteorites and perhaps one day hold a piece of the heavens myself.
