Update 2022:
Statement of our experience with the BAADER equipment:
After more than 10 years of operation we can say that the 3.2m Baader alpine-version dome and cold-temp mount were among the most robust operational equipment in the Candac's inventory in Eureka. In addition, Baader's support was outstanding all along: professional, continuous and timely.Dalhousie University/Norman T. O'Neill
Published papers for whose data was acquired using the BAADER mount and dome:
- Ivanescu, L., K. Baibakov, N. T. O'Neill, J.-P. Blanchet, Y. Blanchard, A. Saha, M. Rietzec and .-H. Schulz, Challenges in operating an Arctic telescope, Proc. SPIE 9145, Ground-based and Airborne Telescopes V, 914549, 2014; doi:10.1117/12.2071000.
- Baibakov, K., O'Neill, N. T., Ivanescu, L., Duck, T. J., Perro, C., Herber, A., Schulz, K.-H., and Schrems, O.: Synchronous polar winter starphotometry and lidar measurements at a High Arctic station, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 8, 3789-3809, doi:10.5194/amt-8-3789-2015, 2015.
- O'Neill, N. T., K. Baibakov, S. Hesaraki, L. Ivanescu, R. V. Martin, C. Perro, J. P. Chaubey, A. Herber, and T. J. Duck. "Temporal and spectral cloud screening of polar winter aerosol optical depth (AOD): impact of homogeneous and inhomogeneous clouds and crystal layers on climatological-scale AODs." ACP, 16, no. 19, 12753-12765, 2016.
In August 2010 Baader Planetarium erected a deep temperature professional 3.2 meter dome, together with an AZ 2000 AltAz-mount with thermocover on the order of Dalhousie University Halifax (Dept. of Physics and Atmospheric Research) and University of Toronto/Canada suitable for star-photometric research in the high Arctic region.
The location is on Ellesmere Island at 80° North latitude. The EUREKA-station is world´s northermost permanently manned civil point of research. From here it is approx 1000km to the North Pole. Accordingly temperatures in the Arctic winter will drop to – 56°C which requires highly sophisticated technical solutions for the whole installation and especially for all electric drives and electronics. A smaller dome as shown did not survive the harsh environment and had to be left there dysfunctional.
On the other end of the world, at Dome-C Antarctica, there is a 4.5M AllSky Dome in use since 2009 without maintenance. The image to the right, which would be also applicable for this dome in Canada, shows some reasons why it is so important to have an hermetic seal around the telescope and mount, even if such locations postulate zero or almost zero humidity.
