The society has a number of active projects currently underway.
Network
LAN
A cat5E UTP LAN with a 16 port 10/100 Mbps network switch has been installed at the Observatory.
NTP Server
A Motorola M12+ GPS Timing receiver has been connected to a Pentium III PC with 128Mytes of RAM running FreeBSD 6.1 to create a Stratum 1 NTP server. The NTP server clock typically synchronises to UTC to better than 10us. This server will allow all PCs,other than laptops, connected to the observatory LAN to accurately synchronise their internal clocks to UTC. Linux and FreeBSD machines should synchronise to better than 1 millisecond, whereas Windows machines should synchronise to within100 milliseconds or so. Laptops and some other modern computers cannot be accurately synchronised due to the power saving features which vary the processor clock frequency unless expensive custom hardware clocks and software drivers are used.
The receiver and Computer currently work well on the test bench. A GPS antenna has yet to be installed at the observatory and the receiver has to be mounted in a rack mount enclosure.
24” Replacement
The society is currently working towards replacing the 24” with more modern optics and drive. We expect to be seeking funding for this project by May of 2019.
