The Domes. First of all, the practiced eye will note that all six of the domes we have on site are Ash domes. Let that statement stand on its own. The two largest of these are used with their azimuth control motors installed, but the four smaller ones are rotated by hand, a situation which we find satisfactory.
CCDs. At present the observatory owns three SBIG ST-6's and an SBIG ST-8. We find these to be a good compromise between cost and quality. We also have BVRI, RGB and narrow band filters for use with most of these units.
Computers. The observatory is currently a PC-compatible shop, with computers of various brands and sizes. Our classroom building houses an 8 unit LAN which students of all backgrounds use for image analysis and simulations. We use laptops with most of the CCD's and an NT machine is used for controlling the Austin-Fellows telescope. The observatory itself is not directly connected to the internet, although the rest of our facilities in the Science Center on the AU campus certainly are. Plans for an observatory connection are in progress.
Spectrographs. Right now we have a few, simple ways of getting limited spectral information. An objective prism and objective gratings are available for some of our telescopes and a small spectrograph with either film or CCD recording capabilities is currently in testing on the heliostat.
Photometry. In addition to the CCDs, we also own an Optec SP3 with filters.
Traditional Photography. 4x5 cameras are either built in to or are available for all of our major telescopes. Film hypersensitizing equipment is available as well. In addition, we have 35 mm camera bodies and PLS eyepiece projection systems that can be installed on any of our telescopes.