Massive donation to the opening of the Kosovo National Observatory

[solarchat]

last time I was in Kosovo, CBSAP Director there, Pranvera Hyseni, and I met at length with the president of the country and his minister of education to try and get the ball rolling on a public observatory in their country.
A lot of you follow our Facebook page and already know how this has come to fruition finally.
Thanks to our very small amount of great donors, I was finally able to ship the best solar telescope I have and a brand new heavy duty skywatcher mount to Kosovo for their opening day dedication coming up in June of this year.
I can’t tell you how incredible it feels to see this plan coming together and to be able to have the resources to give them $20,000 worth of personal solar gear.
The nonprofit covered shipping and team Celestron even pitched in some as well.
They will have, to my knowledge, the largest and probably the only hydrogen alpha solar telescope in a public observatory in Europe thanks to our little group.
We should all be very proud, especially those that donate during the fundraisers to make all this happen.
This is me waving by to the Lunt LS152 custom made double stacked telescope with a bunch of accessories that I added on.

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[solarchat]

I changed out all the pressure tuning seals and put new grease on them as well as replacing the glass in the blocking filter before I shipped it so they would not have any problems. I also included extra blocking filter glass and extra rubber O-rings.
I really hope it gets there in one piece.
For those that don’t know, the Lunt 80 mm double stack that I gave to them several years ago was destroyed in an automobile accident going to one of their outreach events. The driver was hit from behind on what they call a highway and they lost all of their five telescopes and seriously damaged the mounts.
Celestron is donating a C14 and mount for the sissy nighttime stuff.

[solarchat]

This donation whittles down my telescope inventory to just one set for the Atlanta home and one set for the Marsh House.
Since I gave away all the h alpha scopes except for my two original and irreplaceable Coronado 90s, I was able to get them out and clean them up for mounting on my Atlanta set up. These are the original two scopes that I purchased for outreach back in 2008. The calcium K 90 is maybe the only one left on Earth and the double stacked 90 is one of the original American made Coronados.
These two scopes were highly modified and customized by Coronado before they sold to Meade and have the best visual views I have ever seen through any solar scope. They aren’t that great for imaging as they are plagued with uneven illumination being a tilting system but the visual views are simply outstanding.
I put the Astro Physics AP 130 Starfire in the Center to use for white light and the Lunt calcium K module if need be.
I’m really excited about getting this kit out and trying it out as I did did my first thousand or so school visits with the same kit minus the Starfire.
Here’s some pics.

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[Montana]

That's fabulous Stephen

Andy Devey has a Coronado CaK 90mm in Spain, it was very nice to use. I think his is number 1 or number 2, I took a photo of the plate as I was very impressed, I need to look tonight. So there is one other I know of

Alexandra

[pedro]

Great news Stephen. Best of luck for the new Kosovo National Observatory

[ffellah]

Great work and donations, Stephen. Nice to know they will have a new, high quality solar observatory there ! My favorite picture of you is the third from the top: you have a sort of a devilish look but happy .

Franco

[OlegLviv]

Great Work!

[DeepSolar64]

Stephen,
That is so awesome!! I have never seen anyone so freely donate to a cause as you do. Even donating some of your best personal equipment. A Lunt 152 is a dream scope for many of us! Did you donate a Lunt CaK module by any chance?

You make me think. When I pass away in hopefully a few years I have wondered what will become of my equipment. I have no one to really pass it on to except a close friend and he is my age. I have thought of donating my scopes then to an educational facility, etc. I have often wondered about the long term future of CBSAP. Do you have a backup to take charge when you become unable? When I become unable to observe or worse yet pass on CBSAP would be an awesome organization to donate equipment to. I admire what you have done and what you are doing. Two thumbs up!! And I am glad you are keeping those Coronados!!

James.

And I agree, the tilting of those etalons do make imaging more difficult than visual due to uneven illumination and tuning. Much more so in doublestack than in singlestack!

[marktownley]

Lovely to see and read

[MapleRidge]

Very impressive to see the hardware and read about the project. Well done Stephen

Brian

[nicspenceryork]

Genuinely interesting to see your shiny set up in detail, thanks.
Congratulations on your continued success in facilitating solar astronomy for others (like me) who wouldn’t be enjoying the sun as much as we do without CBSAP 👏
Nic

[MAURITS]

That's a great project Stephen.

[arnedanielsen]

This is awesome Stephen!!!

[astroshot]

Wow! That's amazing!
For those in Europe, wouldn't it be cool to head there some time for a meetup?

[vineyard]

What a fantastic thing to do. Bravo. And what amazing scopes!

[Dennis]

Impressive work, and scopes. Many will not forget the views through them im sure.