Sounds like a good idea. While the board has ultimate authority they have tended to rely on the SPOC Committee to first endorse any SPOC related activities. Ken Harris is the SPOC Committee chair but I'm pretty sure he'll defer to Bruce Grim since it's Bruce, as Observatory Director, who was in charge of winterizing the SPOC scopes and buildings. Bruce is out of town until Tuesday but you might want to call (435.882.5237) him once he gets back to see how he feels. patrick p.s. There is already at least one (and maybe two) electric space heater(s) at SPOC. On 25 Nov 2007, at 23:53, Kurt Fisher wrote:
Hi, I'm planning out my winter astronomy activities.
Would the board consider the use of SPOC for this purpose over the winter season?
I don't really have a good home location to set up a scope outside and to run the scope from inside my house. Street lamps and one scope paranoid do-goody in the neighborhood are limitations. Repeaters and new blue-tooth connectors now make it possible set a scope up outside in the cold and run it from inside. But power becomes a limitation with extras like dew heaters and a heater pad for the mount.
It would helpful to be able to use the center control room of SPOC and its "Henchie holes" for such winter observing. A small electric room heater (which I am happy to loan to SLAS) would bring the temperature of the center control room up to useable levels while power cords and USB cords can be run to a scope on the south or north sides of the building.