Santa Monica College Observatory

Santa Monica College was in need of a new building for their engineering and science department. The college understood the importance of having an observatory available to the students and faculty for research and educational programs. As a result, the Division of the State Architect in California placed the observatory out for public bid and Sea West was chosen as a contractor for providing consulting in addition to installing the observatory dome. The observatory includes a 20.5’ Ash Dome and PlaneWave CDK700 observatory system along with numerous smaller telescopes for visual observing outside of the main observatory dome.

Students and faculty can log into the telescope over the internet to remotely schedule data collection via scheduling software, as well as perform virtual star parties. The software integrates with the telescope, cameras, dome, and weather station to ensure optimal data collection is occurring under safe weather conditions. If a weather-related event occurs such as high-winds, or if precipitation is detected, then the observatory’s emergency shutdown procedure is activated to park the telescope and close the dome.