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		Southern Galactic
Southern Galactic Services

Welcome to Southern Galactic

An International Astronomy Community. A global membership of professional and advanced astronomers, scientists, astrophotographers and science writers.

Southern Galactic Telescope Hosting Australia

What Some Of Our Customers Say:

Dr Vaclav Ourednik - AAV Lue-Stailas: Resident SG Astronomer

'Very competitively priced, the commitment of Southern Galactic Telescope Hosting Australia to their customers is excellent, and the staff are ALL the time there for advice and to work with us in setting up and optimizing our remote imaging system. But to at least the same degree, we also value their friendship and dedication to the mission of NG/SG International - and a genuine interest in the success of AAV Lue-Stailas.'

Dr Joseph Brimacombe: Resident SG Astronomer

'I've come to think of Southern Galactic as my astronomical home. It has allowed me to interact with other astronomers, get some of my images published, including two APODs, and gave me the confidence to start collecting and submitting photometric data on supernovae and faint comets. . Though the transparency and seeing are not what you get at Dome C in the Antarctic, there are enough clear windless nights to produce a weath of images for processing, and they are always there to provide guidance, technical support and security for your gear. The observatory is continually being upgraded and developed: the most exciting of these is the second site in Central Australia, with seeing conditions comparable to the National Observatory at Siding Spring. In summary, SG offers the frustrated urban astronomer a wonderful way into high level remote astronomy allowing you to enjoy and contribute to this remarkable and ancient field of human endevour.'

Bob Anderson / Bob Sandness: Resident SG Astronomers

Moving an astrophotography system worth close to $85K to a remote site for the first time, let alone a new country is no small feat and is beset by a ton of risk and challenges. Now, after a year of running it at Southern Galactic Telescope Hosting Australia from our homes here in Canada, we can report that Bert and his team at SG have made it all a lot easier when one deals with a professionally run facility. From the SMS messages on our Blackberries informing us of the weather prognosis for the upcoming evening through to the hands on resources located on site, Bert and his team are always available to do whatever necessary to keep the system running, whether its 9PM or 3AM in the morning. Our advanced optics, equatorial mount and large scale CCD camera all require a fairly clean, weather proof building. The Southern Galactic facility provides the perfect environment while also delivering security, stable power, excellent internet bandwidth, (generally better than our already great web speeds here in Canada), and a “can-do” attitude which is essential to maximizing performance and ‘up time’. While we use sophisticated automation software to run the system unattended, it’s very helpful to have Bert and his team monitor the system to ensure there are no surprises. We can, without reservation, highly recommend Southern Galactic Telescope Hosting Australia to anyone looking for top notch service and support at a remote observing site.

On behalf of Southern Galactic Telescope Hosting Australia, we would like to thank you for your interest in our Multiple Hosting Locations for your particular astronomical endeavours and to extend to you a warm Australian welcome. Southern Galactic Telescope Hosting is Australias Longest Established Telescope Hosting Facility and the result of many consultations over the years with astronomers as to what they desire when considering the establishment of a Remotely Operated System hosted within a particular facility. It is with their valued input and our great pleasure that we can now offer a choice of venues to our existing and future resident astronomers.

Our main site is located in a position midway between Kyneton and Lancefield on the northern ridge of the Cobaw Plateau on the Great Dividing Range of Central Victoria. This particular site was selected after an exhaustive 2 year search for its many features including a convenient proximity and its unique location high on the Cobaw Plateau. Rising to over 610 meters (2,000 ft) above sea level and situated on 30 acres surrounded by mature untouched native forest, Site 1 is uniquely situated to provide high end telescope remote operations and hosting services along with research opportunities for professional and advanced astronomers at an international level as required.

The Site 1 seclusion, seeing conditions, altitude and surrounding environs were also prime factors in its suitability as both an optical and radio astronomy observatory and remote telescope-hosting location. The site and facility is registered as ASA Number: DO3-37 with the Astronomical Society of Australia as a noted dark sky educational / research facility and qualifies for State and Local Government Light Pollution Ordinance protection.

Our second Site is situated on Mount Spriggina, Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary in the Northern Flinders Ranges and is arguably, the best site on the Australian mainland for locating any remote system and boasts constant sub arcsecond seeing throughout the entire year. The site also 'officially' resides in an area regarded as having the lowest cloud cover for any Australian locality. See the 'Our Sites' page for further details with published research studies of the site supporting our documentation.

Southern Galactic Exclusive Shipping and Customs Services

Southern Galactic Telescope Hosting is the only hosting facility in Australia that utilizes its own Customs and Shipping Agency Service in order to facilitate the entire process of shipping your equipment here to Australia from any location in the world. With one email instruction, our Agents can handle the entire process, saving customers time and extra expenses in meeting the unfamiliar compliance requirements of Australian Customs and Quarantine. This allows for a faster system arrival and setup, lower overall costs and with far less worry for our new customers.

The Southern Galactic Advantage

The Australian continent is not a place of endless blue skies, never ending summers with shrimps on the Bar-B-Que every day as you may have imagined after viewing the Paul Hogan tourism commercials years ago.

Imaging remotely in Australia can be a frustrating experience. Weather is becoming increasingly unpredictable, extream and erratic. Clouds seen on radar images may often mean clear nights of observing at the same location. Traditionally dry areas and regions with recorded clear weather patterns can now be clouded out for nights on end. Tornados are being seen more frequently around the country, along with increasing Flash Flooding, Extream Temperatures and Dust Storms adding to a remote users worries and frustrations while waiting for calm clear night skies. Although weather is beyond our ability to control, there are other very important aspects of Telescope Hosting that 'can' and 'must' be fully planned for, implemented and monitored to anticipate for the ever changing and potentially damaging weather extremes as they continue to develop here in Australia.

Features at Southern Galactic Telescope Hosting Australia Include...

We are Australias Most Professional, Longest Established and Most Experienced Hosting Service.
Full Australian Standards Building Compliance and Government Certified Permits for All Buildings and Infrastrusture.
All Steel Cyclonic Construction Rated to 200 Kph to protect your valuable investment.
We engineer to exacting standards and tolerences.
We provide 'Official Government Site Performance Data Records' and Costings up front.
We dont use 'Sales Hype' or 'Unofficial Inflated Weather Stats'.
Equipment and infrastructure comprehensive insurance cover for 'All' scenarios.
Magnitude 6.5 to 7.5 darksky locations.
Multi-site selection and options.
Our Own Exclusive Shipping and Customs Agency is Now Available. NEW!!
Our sites are staffed at all times and are 'At Call' for our customers.
FREE On Site Monitoring and General Servicing !!. As it should be.
Private Communications Text Channel for Instant Feedback and Monitoring while you Image. NEW!!
Full roof insulation to prevent condensation falling on optics when closed.
Air Conditioned Observatory Option for all Mount Spriggina Customers. NEW!!
Raised sub-flooring with active ventilation systems.
Total wall and roof sectional bracing with fully overlapped roof Side flanges to keep out dust and vermin.
Emergency roof lockdown systems.
Emergency fire alarms, security monitors and fire extinguishing capabilities.
Separate computer room design at Site 1 eliminates thermal sources near optics and cameras in a multi user situation.
All sites have on site security 24/7 and on site support 24/7.
Rental rates begin from less than $980.00 per month all inclusive. (New Discouted Rates)
Rock solid T2 internet expandable to T12 and designed from the ground up for our customers.
No satellite latency issues. Southern Galactic uses wireless technologies.
No FTP Servers. Upload directly whatever and whenever you need to.
Boltwood cloud sensor installed with all sky cam.
Daily SMS Mobile Phone Update Service direct to our resident astronomers. (NEW!!)
UPS Installed to all systems with generator backup.
On site emergency bushfire water supply.

What Does This Mean For Our SG 1 and SG 2 Customers?

No Long Periods of Internet Interruption: No Risk To Your Equipment: No Chance of Insurance Not Paying Out In Case Of A Claim Due To Lack Of Proper Planning Ordinance: No Fried CCD Cameras or Circuits Due To Excessive Heat: No Long Waiting Periods For Needed Servicing: Service Above All Else!

How does Southern Galactic compare against other Australian facilities?

Some use non A.B.S complient minimal timber construction with 3.5mm Fibro Cement walls offering very low wind ratings; Others provide no roof insulation to prevent condensation common to Australian conditions at night; Minimal bracing to walls; Lack of proper retractable roof overlap offering no dust protection to optical equipment; Use of sales pitch style 'unofficial' weather statistics; Flat roof designs requiring parking of telescopes 'Before' a required emergency closure; Computers and optics are not separated in rooms with multiple users, creating thermal heat sources near telescopes.

While the temptation of extra clear nights per year may at first sound appealing, the long term safety, ongoing protection and uninterrupted operation of your valuable optical investment is something that needs to be taken into serious consideration when looking at any hosting facility. Lets face it, a clear night of observing is useless if you have no remote communications to your system or worst still, your system ends up landing in a storm in the next door neighbours property!

Southern Galactic Telescope Hosting Australia easily highlights the possibilities available to customers as they consider having their particular equipment safely hosted and cared for here in Australia for long term use. The option to ship equipment to the other side of the globe can be a daunting decision, but once made, Southern Galactic in a sense becomes a partner and personal assistant in helping get the most from a resident astronomer's completed remote system.

Our service personnel are able to receive equipment from Australian Customs, fully install, test and initialise any particular telescope system in order to gain full remote access to the splendour of our Australian night skies from either of our two locations.

What Do You Require

Mount Requirements
Mounts suitable for remote operation here in Australia are limited because of the need to have absolute encoders so that there is no need to re-sync with the night sky after a hard power cycle.
A mount needs to be able to switch on, home and begin slewing without the need for any sync proceedures.
We only recommened the following: Paramount ME Paramount GT AstroPhysics

Computer Recommendation
We require computers to be of good quality with dual processors and minimum 3.2 MHTz Clock Speeds. Generally, off the shelf brands such as Compaq, HP or IBM are all suitable, but stay away from using systems with Serial to USB adapters.
Make sure your Computer has at lease 4 USB2 Ports as well as a Serial Port. A good idea is to also supply an external Hard Disk Drive for backing up data.

Quality Telescope
Telescopes with proven quality and able to hold collimation are generally adequate for remote operations.
RC Optical Systems Takahashi Astrophysics TMB Any other Quality Brand

Quality Focusing System
We recommend Robofocus and Optek since these units use absolute positioning. Other systems are not considered relaible enough for remote operations.

Remote Power Switching Remote power IP Switches are required for remote operations. We suggest the following units:
http://dataprobe.com/products/power/powerstrips/ibootbar/index.html
http://www.digital-loggers.com/lpc.html

Uninterruptable Power Supply / UPS A UPS with power filtering to protect your equipment is highly recommended. We can supply these units at special reduced cost for our customers. We use Socomec UPS Units exclusively.

Remote Control Software
http://www.gotomypc.com/

System Design We are able to design a suitable diagram that details the complete specification of what is required to setup your system remotely if you require.

Shipping Costs and Fees
All shipments imported into Australia valued more than $1,000 AUD attract Australian Goods and Services Tax of 10% plus duties applicable to your shipment plus miscellaneous airport charges and handling fees. You would expect to pay for a fully insured shipped system valued at $60,000 of around $3,800 to $4,200 AUD in GST taxes and shipping charges.

Regardless if customers intend to use RCOS, Astrograph or Refractor based imaging systems, they will have the confidence in knowing their equipment is housed safely and securely within our premises...all designed to fully protect a valuable optical investment.

For users needing specific housing requirements in the case of large instruments up to 40 inch / 1000mm D , our 3 x 3 or 4 x 4 Meter individual roll off observatories are also available with special discounted options and rates. Generally, Southern Galactic leasing rates for our customers are well below other hosting facilities because we believe in making remote telescope system hosting as affordable to as many as possible.

Establishing a Remote System here in the Southern Hemisphere with the Longest Established and Best Equipped Hosting Facilities in Australia with your choice of the best locations, is no longer beyond the reach of many astronomers. Southern Galactic Telescope Hosting Australia can now make it possible, affordable and viable.

Clear skies,

Bert Candusio
Director / Southern Galactic Telescope Hosting Australia

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