Madison Metropolitan School District Planetarium

School Forest Observatory

General Information:

The School Forest Observatory is on the property of the Madison Metropolitan School District's School Forest located near the city of Verona, Wisconsin. The observatory consists of a telescope and camera inside a small dome with a shutter that can be opened to give the telescope access to the sky. Training and assistance in the use of the observatory is available only for MMSD teachers and students upon request (students must have a supervising MMSD teacher).

Small groups of students and teachers (no more than 2-5) can gather with a volunteer technician at the school forest and use the telescope from inside the dome.

Observatory Specifications:

• Optics: Celestron CM-1400 14" aperture schmidt-cassegrain telescope
• Camera: Santa Barbara Instruments Group ST-7 w/KAF400 chip
• Mount: Software Bisque Paramount 1100
• Dome: Technical Innovations ProDome with Digital Domeworks software control
• Computers and Software: Windows 98 with DC-3 Dreams Astronomer's Control Panel (Web), PinPoint, and Cyanogen's MaxIM.

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