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Deep Sky Exploration (DSE) was founded on May 1, 1978 by a group of astronomy and space enthusiasts. In the first years, DSE was more a local club than a society. However, the club was very active with at least one meeting a week. DSE arranged seminars on special topics lasting over a series of meetings. A seminar serie was usually concluded with a report describing the main results of the presentations and discussions.
A central activity in DSE in the period 1979 - 1983 was
the Space Ecology Experiment (SEE). A main Norwegian newspaper (VG) announced
a contest in 1979 asking its readers to propose a space project for a NASA
space shuttle Get Away Special (GAS) cannister funded by the newspaper. The
SEE project was selected by the newspaper. DSE had proposed to send up in
orbit a small aquatic ecosystem in order to study how the weightlessness
influences on the ecological balance. The motivation for this study was the
importance ecosystems may play in the future to recycle resources in space
stations, long-distance space ships and bases on other planets and moons. DSE
built up a laboratory where it carried out experiments with a laboratory
version of the system. The project created enthusiasm and creativity among
its members, so it was a great disappointment when the newspaper's editor
decided to cancel the project in 1982. The reason was the slow progress in
the space shuttle programme. With a queue of several hundred GAS customers,
the newspaper could hardly expect to see concrete results within the century.
Deep Sky Exploration introduced a new membership type in 1982 (Type 2
membership), and this created a major change in the development of the
society. The Type 1 membership was the old very active membership, while Type
2 membership was a more normal society membership. At the same time, we
introduced our society The Deep Sky Explorer (now Astro Rapport). These
transferred DSE from a club to a society. It was now of interest to a much
broader public. And it gave results very soon. The number of members,
originally only a handful, was doubled several times in the coming years.
Deep Sky Exploration was active with astronomical observations from the very
beginning using one of its founder's observatory. In 1983, DSE started
systematic observation in order to make its own image archives of deep sky
objects, comets, etc.
The society got interest in a new observatory location in 1984. The original plan was to set up some permanent telescope pillars in the inner and dark part of the Vestfold county, and after a while develop this into an observatory. However, in 1986, before any pillars had been set up, DSE decided to build up a complete observatory building with a roll-off roof and a heated side room. One of the more than 30 potential observatory sites inspected in the previous years was selected, and seven months later the first observations with the observatory's two 20 cm telescopes were made. Today, the building, now named Vega, is a part of the NOVA complex and is equipped with two larger telescopes in addition to one of its original 20 cm telescopes.
As a society, Deep Sky Exploration got more offers to its members after some
years of activity. In addition to regular meetings and observations, it
started to arrange excursions, star-party weekends and expeditions. It could
also offer books, slides and computer software from its library, and
participation in a working group for astronomical software. The first
expedition was to the Canary Islands for watching Halley's comet in April
1986. Several expeditions have been arranged after the first, the most
distant to Hawaii for observations of the total solar eclipse in July 1991.
Two buildings were added to the NOVA observatory in 1988. These were the Phoenix and the Sirius buildings. Phoenix is the reconstructed observatory the society used in it's first years, and Sirius is a dormitory that makes it easier to stay at the observatory several days. Phoenix was equipped with a much larger telescope, a 40 cm instead of the previous 20 cm telescope. The 40 cm was originally a Meade DS-16A, but was slowly metamorphosed into an own construction except for the optical part of it. It is now completely computerized, driven by stepper motors -- everything built around a 400 kg rigid telescope mounting.
The society activities have been very much centered around NOVA after the observatory was built. Three observational groups were created in 1993: Group for CCD Observations, Group for Astrophotography and Group for Photometry. DSE turned into the CCD age just before that, in 1992, when the first image was taken with a SBIG ST-6 camera. Currently, the observatory is equipped with ST-4 and ST-7 cameras. For astrophotography, the observatory was equipped with film forming-gas equipment and a darkroom. NOVA also got an agreement with the University of Oslo for a loan of a photoelectric photometer. The ST-7 is also suitable for most types of variable star measurements.
The most recent working group in the society is the Study
Group for the Next Generation Telescope (NGT). That means, it started as a
study group, however, the current plan is to build a robotic telescope in the
1 meter size. The NGT group consists of a team of technically very experienced
people (professionals). The group is now prototyping a robotic telescope on
the Phoenix before starting to make the real NGT. This Phoenix prototype
robotic telescope will be made available to DSE's members and others when it
becomes operational.
Updated 2/7-97