Hosted by Hill Country Astronomers and Putman Mountain Observatory

Friday, April 6, 2018

Starting at 6:30 pm

Putman Mountain Observatory

Note

We’ve put together the information below concerning date and time, directions and live weather  from the observatory and an observing list.

We’ll provide barbeque and beverages.  If you want to bring anything else, you’re more than welcome.

We look forward to seeing you!

Ken and Laurie

Directions from Fredericksburg

• Head west on Main Street and take Highway 87 toward Mason.
• Go approximately 9 miles until you reach Ranch Road 2323.
• Turn off Highway 87 and take Ranch Road 2323 toward Prairie Mountain/Llano.
• Go 12.1 miles on Ranch Road 2323.  The gate for observatory is on the left and there will be a Star Party sign
• Address is 12217.

Google Map is below.

Date and Times

Friday April 6, 2018

Observing Locations

There are two observing locations on Putman Mountain.  One is at the base of of the mountain where the observatory and cabin are located.  The other is located on top of the mountain.  Both locations have power and wifi available.  The location on top of the mountain is relatively flat and the location at the base of the mountain is sloped, and therefore, you will have to adjust tripods more at the base location.

There is one road to the top of the mountain.  At  the top there is space for parking along a dirt road, but you all will need to decide on any light windows if observers want to depart before others.

I’ll have the observing locations marked so you’ll know where to go.

Observing List

A downloadable observing list will be provided closer to the event.

Satellite Passes

Follow this link for satellite passes over Putman Mountain.

Observatory Telescope

I will give a tour of the observatory telescope and explain how it operates.  The telescope is a 16″ Ritchey Chretien housed in a robotic dome.  You can read more about it by clicking on the “Observatory” link on the sidebar to the left of this page.

Current Weather and Forecast

Putman Mountain Observatory has a weather station that updates this webpage every 15 minutes with current weather conditions.

Current Weather

Current Weather

Weather forecast

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Currently

Currently

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Currently

Sky Conditions

The observatory maintains a cloud monitor to monitor sky conditions in order to close the observatory dome if the sky is cloudy or humidity is too high.  Current conditions from the cloud monitor are shown below.

Cloud Monitor Output

Clear Sky Chart

All Sky Camera

Putman Mountain Observatory also maintains an all sky camera.  The camera takes a wide angle image (fish eye) of the sky every few minutes and posts it to this website.  From the image you can see the north star at the top of the image, east is to the left and west is to the right.

The bright light in the image is the moon.  Check back closer to May 19 and you will be able to see a darker sky as the moon wanes.

The current all sky image is shown below.  You can see the observatory dome at the one o’clock position.

Current All Sky Image

Seeing Monitor

The observatory maintains a seeing monitor to measure the real time “seeing” conditions above the observatory.  The seeing monitor is updated every few minutes.  The seeing monitor takes high speed video of Polaris and calculates the effect of atmospheric turbulence on how well we can see objects through our telescopes.  Generally, a reading of 2.5 or below is very good.  Readings below 2.0 indicate exceptionally good seeing and high magnification views of the planets will be very nice.

Most Recent Seeing Monitor Graph:

Clear Skies!