November, 2023
The darkest skies needed the best control system.
When the Howling Coyote Remote Observatory decided to build a telescope hosting facility in one of the worlds best dark sky locations they also committed to using only the best technology for their clients. Large volume steel buildings supported on steel track, high bandwidth networking, and excellent environmental sensors were chosen for the high desert locale. They also demanded reliable motion control with automated scheduling. They called Dark Dragons Astro and requested a custom solution that would reliable move those large structures every night the sky was clear. With an average of 300 clear nights a year, they needed equipment designed for high uptimes. Dark Dragons specializes in applying off the shelf, easy to source industrial components into highly specialized advanced amateur astronomy equipment. Mating gear motors used in the trucking industry, with bearings, chains, sprockets and gears readily available from thousands of MRO sources worldwide to its innovative control systems, Dark Dragons has created the modern system HCRO was in search of.
With its customizable gear reduction system, both torque and speed can be tailored specifically to the application. HCRO wanted to move a 20×26 steel building from full open to full closed in less than 3 minutes. The DragonLAIR Pro was geared to do that job in less then 2.5 minutes. With its fully IP rated exterior enclosure, battery backup, fully automated or manual control and networked status updates, HCRO can see a constant stream of status updates via any web device they choose. On site maintenance staff can see and repair problems before a client notices a problem with their building. Allowing them to get the maximum amount of observing time from those highly prized dark skies. HCRO also knows that parts available will never be a problem due to the DragonLAIR Pro’s ‘off the shelf ‘ parts list. An important feature when situated in those extremely remote locations.
Contact Dark Dragons for a free consultation on your remote automated astronomy needs today and ‘Stretch Your Imagination’
