The 17” is a PlaneWave OTA on a Mathis fork mount. It has an SBIG STL-11000, 11 Mpix of 9-micron size, giving a field of view of almost half a degree. It has a filter wheel with Johnson-Cousins U, B, V, RC, IC, Luminance, clear filters. MaxIm DL controls the camera and filter wheel. Software Bisques’ program, The Sky, controls the telescope.
This telescope is primarily used on the Skynet robotic telescope network, with queue-scheduled observations that are interrupted, infrequently, by response to GRB or LIGO event alerts. Donated by Dean Glace, it is shared by Appalachian State and Dean Glace, who does remote observing from his home in South Carolina.
Images and further information can be found at Dean Glace's Astrobin gallery.
Full automatic/remote use was provided by a grant from the National Science Foundation's Major Research Instrumentation Program.