[Aavso-photometry] Possible Bottlenecks for Using a small telescope (12" Meade LX200 ) from Antarctica

[Russ Durkee]

Hello Mukund,
I had the opportunity to work for a short time at South Pole a few years ago and heard a bit about the difficulties with telescopes and operating small telescopes in Antarctica.

Most of the telescopes I have seen on the continent are on platforms off the ground to get above the blowing snow and turbulence. This SETI telescope is an example:

http://www.polartransits.org/SPwinter2004/SPwinter2004-Pages/Image1.html

and the scopes at Dome C

http://www-luan.unice.fr/Concordiastro/sitetesting.html

The other consideration is the quality of the hardware you are considering. I would recommend that you bring duplicates of everything, scope, CCDs, power supplies, cabling.  You will need them when parts mysteriously fail or castings crack or break.  The Antarctic cold does strange things to hardware...the vast majority of it bad.   

In particluar I would not recommend the LX200 but use an Astrophysics 900 with either a Meade 12" OTA, or a Celestron 11".   Also, contact the French team at Dome C for specific recommendations for lubrication and cabling and power considerations.

Good luck. Sounds like a fun project!

Regards,

Russ Durkee
Shed of Science Observatory
Minneapolis, Minnesota.