8m – Skinakas Observatory (FORTH)

30 years of Baader-domes on Mt. Skinakas, right next to the mythological birthplace of ZEUS

Heraklion, Crete September 27, 2016

The Observatory seeing conditions are excellent, with median seeing in two campaigns of 0.7 arcsec. There are two telescopes currently in operation at Skinakas Observatory: a 30 cm Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope (this was the first telescope installed at the 3.2m Observatory in 1986) and a 1.3 m, modified Ritchey–Chrétien telescope (commissioned in 1997), which is the principal observing facility of the Observatory. Both telescopes are operated on a regular basis for research and educational purposes. There are currently over 190 publications in international refereed journals which present results from Skinakas observations.

Baader-Planetarium has constructed domes for both telescopes. The domes have successfully withstood the extreme winter weather conditions on top of Skinakas mountain (e.g. wind speeds up to 250 km/hr, frequent lightening, ice and low temperature, down to -15 C), and have protected our valuable scientific equipment.

We are very pleased with our collaboration with Mr. Baader and his team. Even now, after many years since the purchase of the domes, Baader-Planetarium have been very cooperative and helpful in assisting us to adapt the domes, whenever necessary, to fit our new observational and scientific needs.

Due to the quality of the original construction, as well as the substantial and continuous support of the team, we are happy to report that the domes have been working essentially without any problems for over two decades now (actually 30 and 19 years).

Prof. Yannis Papamastorakis,
Tech: George Paterakis (gpat@physics.uoc.gr)

Installation of 8m dome with lightning rods in the year 1998 (replaces the former non-functioning "Ash-Dome")