Coleman Observatory's New Facility

Thursday, June 17 2004 @ 07:15 am EDT

Contributed by: bobmoody



Mobile home purchase to be Coleman Observatory's future meeting/classroom, library, office, control room, caretakers quarters, and members home-away-from-home.

June 14, 2004 brings a new day to what we will achieve and offer here at Coleman Observatory. Joe Roam's purchase of a 12' X 50' 1970 model mobile home for a mere $2000 was one of the most worthwhile purchases we've made to date. Soon, the electric will be run and an air conditioner unit installed (already on-hand) along with a refrigerator, and a washer-dryer (also on-hand), plus my extra-large double-recliner sofa will be a fine start to what we'll soon have for the members to come and enjoy. A little paint, some fix-ups here-and-there, and we'll soon have a very nice place to hold meetings on our off-months from Creekmore Park. That means we'll be going back to monthly meetings with even numbered months meeting in Ft Smith at Creekmore and odd-numbered months meeting at Coleman Observatory.

This will also soon be available for holding classes for both our members AND the public's benefit. My classes at Van Buren's Center for Art and Education have been well attended and are STILL getting calls for more students. If we can have this facility ready within the next month, we might be able to start holding quarterly classes here.

We'll now be able to move all the books, computers and equipment and other items into the trailer to set up a proper office and library. When I remove all this from the north side of our bathroom building, we'll turn this into our first fully equipped, electrically lighted, fresh-water running bona-fide bathroom, complete with air conditioning and heat!

How will we know how to act?

This is the start of bigger and better things for every member of AOAS to enjoy to its fullest potential. Everyone can start making plans for whatever you'd like to use these new and existing facilities for. Winter observing? NO PROBLEM! Too hot in the summer? NO PROBLEM! We'll have everybody covered for any season, for any observing needs. Eventually, we'll run our control cables and lines out to our future remotely controlled Celestron CGE 1400 telescope which Dr. Larson has provided us with. That will be a most momentous day, and I hope all of our members look forward to that day as much as Joe and I do.

LOOK OUT, THERE'S NO STOPPING US NOW!!!

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