NFA Observatory

The NFA Observatory was originally constructed in 1981 through a gift by the Mallove family. It was a manually operated 10' dome with a Celestron C14 on a motorized equatorial mount.

We now have a Technical Innovations 10' motorized dome housing a Celestron EdgeHD 1400 telescope. Like our previous C14, the EdgeHD 1400 is a 14" aperture Schmidt-Cassegrain OTA. However, it has better light gathering technology than our original scope. For imaging, we use a ZWO ASI2600MC/MM DUO digital astrocamera to see deep space objects like galaxies and nebula.

To control the Celestron CGX-L mount and the ASI2600MC/MM DUO camera, we are using a ZWO ASIAIR. Using an iPad with the ASIAIR app, we are able to point our telescope at any visible object in the sky and take as many exposures as needed to bring objects into view.

Public Viewings

When clear skies are ahead, we may have a public remote viewing night, streaming live with Google Meet. We announce our public nights through our e-mail group as the weather changes so quickly in New England. We usually give a one- to two-day heads up prior to a vewing.

You can subscribe to our public viewing announcement list by sending a blank e-mail to:

nfa-observatory-group+subscribe@nfaschool.org

Images

Here are a few images taken with our observatory. The Orion Nebula. Image processed by Clark with just a few exposures (1344 light-years away)

Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) ...when it was leaving NFA...

M31 The Andromeda Galaxy (2.5 million light-years away)

M13 The Hercules Globular Cluster (24.1 kilo light-years away)