By way of a generous cash donation from the Boeing Employees Community Fund, the Alliance for Astronomy, Inc. was able to purchase an excellent 80cm (32-in) telescope from Al Kelly in Houston, Texas.  The telescope was moved from Texas to a temporary site in Moscow Mills, Missouri in September, 2006.  Since acquiring the telescope we have upgraded the drive system to make it a go-to telescope using servomotors and a controller from Sidereal Technology.  Another grant from the Boeing ECF partially provided funds to purchase an SBIG STL-1001 ccd camera with photometric filters (V and I, with B added subsequently) and a Paracorr coma corrector.  The system produces excellent images across a 23.5x23.5 arcmin field of view.  Club members have used it to measure variable stars (~25,000 measurements in 2008 sent to the AAVSO) and detailed observations of the transits of extra solar planets across the face of their stars.

NOTE:
Due to a severe wind storm on July 3, 2011and resulting damage the 80cm telescope is down.  The optics are fine, but currently the scope is unusable.  We are trying to find a home at a new location at Broemmelsiek Park, but so far our efforts have been unsuccessful.  Until a new home is found we will be unable to fix the damage created by the storm.

Check back later to see the status of this telescope.