The Weather Server is a computer system that manages the collection of real-time weather and astronomical information.
Once the information is collected, it is processed into web pages for display on this web site or it is made available to the observatory computer for use in managing the operation of the telescope so it can respond to changes in weather events immediately.
The weather server is named “DarkCloud” and resides on the observatory computer network.
The Weather Server was built specifically for monitoring weather and for continuous operation. It includes:
- ASUS Gryphon Z87 socket 1150 motherboard
- Intel I7 4770k 3.5 Ghz processor
- 16 Gb of RAM
- 160Gb solid state drive for the Win 7 64 bit operating system and
- 1Tb hard drive for preliminary data storage.
Data is archived on the observatory file server.
Motherboard and Processor
Weather Server Configuration
The Weather Server is hardwired to external sensors that collect weather information. The external sensors include:
- Davis Vantage Pro Weather Station
- Boltwood Cloud Monitor
- Sky Quality Meter
- All Sky Camera
Once the Weather Server receives information from the external sensors, it creates weather information for this web site and uploads it to the internet. In addition, the weather server provides information to the observatory computer about weather conditions such as rain or cloudy skies.
The observatory will automatically pause imaging if becomes cloudy and will close the observatory and park the telescope if the cloud cover does not pass or if rain is detected.
