KPO – Our Mission
We’re a private organization based in Saint Cloud, Florida, dedicated to creating beautiful astronomical images of the heavens, and providing astronomy outreach to people of all ages. We are available for private observing sessions and have also held public observing sessions when the Florida weather permits. We love to share our facility with the local community, individuals, and youth groups. Located on a peninsula on Lake Tohopakaliga, in central Osceola County, Florida, the observatory enjoys very dark skies to the south.
Our History
Kissimmee Park Observatory was built literally from the ground up by our Owner and Director, David Hearn. Groundbreaking occurred on January 23rd, 2010, after which all the basic building construction efforts began. The telescope and support computers were finally installed, and the observatory opened for public access in January 2013.
We were careful to take lots of pictures and video along the way, and you can see all the Construction Images, and especially our 19 chapter film documentary “Building KPO” here on our site.
Optical and Imaging Equipment
The observatory houses many types of optical equipment, cameras, and computer systems to allow us to capture our beautiful digital images of the night sky. We are in process of upgrading our telescope and astrophotography technology.
The largest instrument in the observatory, is the KPO 18″ Reflector, a classic Newtonian reflecting telescope with an original Coulter 18″ F/4.5 parabolic mirror. Here the telescope is shown on the new Observing Deck.
The entire optical assembly is mounted on a custom designed robotic telescope mount which can automatically locate thousands of stars and deep sky objects with high precision, all while supporting the several hundred pounds of optical tube and counterweights.
The 18″ telescope is controlled by custom designed Sky Sentinel electronics and control software.
The Sky Sentinel software drives the telescope to locate deep sky object targets. It also uses electronic imaging, from the cameras mounted on the guide scopes, to provide an electronic optical lock during image acquisition. This allows the imaging camera to collect image data while keeping the target object perfectly stationary over a period of hours. The telescope, robotic mount, control electronics, and software were all designed and made by David Hearn.
In the past we had used Canon DSLR cameras and Astronomik light pollution reduction filters to capture our images. Recent technology updates have allowed us to step up to ZWO CCD cameras for image capture and guiding, robotic filterwheel equipped with filters for RGB and narrowband captures, and image session automation using the ZWO ASIAir system.
This new equipment is being used in a smaller wide-field system designed for capturing larger areas of sky (larger nebulae and galaxies).
See this post on our Blog that discusses the technology refresh.