Replacing the Frosty Drew Observatory Telescope

This meeting will be held in person at North Scituate Community House and via Zoom. Contact Linda Bergemann (LBergemann@aol.com) for Zoom meeting link and information.

Over the month of October 2021, the Frosty Drew Observatory replaced its aging primary observatory telescope, a 16” Meade LX200 EMC SCT, with a new 24” PlaneWave CDK600. The installation culminated two years of development, planning, grant writing, and site upgrades, bringing Frosty Drew’s mission into its next generation.

Scott MacNeill is the project lead for the installation of the new telescope, which was carried out by the Frosty Drew Astronomy Team. He developed the project road map, wrote the grant, assembled the installation team, led the installation, performed campus network integration and device calibration, and developed operational documentation as well as team training procedures. The telescope replacement process was heavily documented and all images and video were archived.

Join Scott as he shares anecdotes of the planning, site upgrades, and installation of the new PlaneWave CDK600 alongside video and photos of the process. He’ll discuss the direction that Frosty Drew is moving towards, including future plans for the new telescope, imaging and visual configurations, and of course, show off some of the first astronomical images captured with the new telescope.

Scott MacNeill is the current Director of the Frosty Drew Observatory and Science Center. Scott develops all Frosty Drew campus and telescope automation, remote presentation frameworks, the frostydrew.org website, and writes about astronomy, including a weekly newsletter on astronomical happenings for the Frosty Drew community. At Brown University’s Ladd Observatory Scott performs the duties of Assistant Astronomer and operates telescopes, supervises student staff, writes astronomy imaging lab manuals, and presents the night sky to visitors. In 2020, Scott took on the role of Astronomy Labs professor at Bryant University, and is a partner in the Rhode Island Sidewalk Astronomers. He is a professional Systems and Software Engineer with roots in the open source community. In addition, Scott serves as the current CEO and Chairs the Frosty Drew Memorial Fund Board of Directors, and is a periodic astronomy correspondent to NPR, WJAR, and The Weather Channel.