The American Public University System (APUS) was founded in 1991 by a retired Marine Corps officer who envisioned an innovative way to offer quality and affordable education to our U.S. armed forces. Today, APUS serves a diverse population of more than 100,000 military, public service, and corporate professionals through American Military University and American Public University. They are one of the leading providers of online education, frequently recognized by the prestigious Online Learning Consortium (OLC) for best practices in online education.

Observatory Solutions started working with APUS on the observatory project in 2014. Construction of the Information Technology Center building was well underway in the spring of 2015 and in April the 22.5′ Ash dome was installed. Observatory Solutions was onsite in June for polar alignment of the telescope pier, installation of the mount and main telescope and initial setup of the dome and telescope automation systems. We returned in October for final telescope alignment, installation of a secondary telescope, installation of cameras, installation of additional weather monitoring equipment and observatory training. 

The observatory consists of the following equipment:

• Ash dome; 22.5′ diameter with hydraulic lower shutter and slip rings for continuous power to the dome.
• Dome automation system.
• PlaneWave Ascension 200 mount with eight (8) 40 lb. counterweights and one (1) 18 lb. counterweight.
• PlaneWave CDK24 (24″, 0.61 m) telescope with Hedrick focuser and Delta-T dew prevention system.
• Tele Vue NP127is (5″) refractor with Focusmaster motorized focuser and 1-micron fine indicator.
• SBIG STX-16803 camera with FW-7 seven position filter wheel, Astrodon filters, Astrodon Off-Axis guider (MMOAG) and SBIG remote guide camera.
• SBIG STT-8300 camera with FW-8G eight filter wheel with internal guide camera and Astrodon filters.
• Remote power switches for the A200 mount and telescopes + accessories.
• Foscam webcam for monitoring activity inside the observatory.
• WeatherSTEM system for capturing weather information at the observatory.
• WeatherSTEM Cloud Camera for a general sky view at the observatory.
• Technical Innovations / AAG cloud sensor for monitoring sky conditions and controlling dome shutter automatic closure.
• SBIG All-Sky camera for detailed sky monitoring.

Current weather information and a view of the observatory can be seen at: http://apus.weatherstem.com