Telescope Mountain Conservation Management at Singularity Observatory

After the move to a new observatory location, conservation studies for Taiwan Conservation Management can resume. What is learned so far?

In the north of the island, the low mountains near the Taipei basin contain several of the island's endemic species or subspecies, including the rare emerald tree frog and Taipei green tree frog. 

These mountains are an especially good habitat for amphibians, since the northeast winter monsoon wind lifts moisture laden air from over the warm Japan sea current and blows it up the mountainsides, where it cools and condenses, releasing precipitation over the subtropical forest.

Eventually the telescopes will photo and classify the endemic species, record their living space, numbers, and habits, and potentially report findings and population/ distribution trends to the Taiwan Government Conservation & Wildlife. Other projects include bird & large insect watching and mountain exploring/ mapping by remote. Mapping the mountains and their elevations relative to the horizon will benefit telescope astro imaging during night time, for ascertaining various lunar and planetary rise times and for operating predictive planetarium programs before telescope observations and astro imaging.

Elephant Mountain is about 20 miles away from Singularity observatory. It includes in the background a larger and more distant mountain range. The closest mountain is flanked by two massive office skyscrapers, a black and an orange, that have roads leading into the mountain for easy access. At the top of the mountain range are a series of power towers ideal for aligning finderscopes. To the left, when facing East, two large and four smaller towers are visible during average conditions. More rare are occasional building structures seen in two locations.

To observe the mountains, Singularity Observatory is currently using repertoire of six telescopes depending on conditions - Celestron EdgeHD C14, Celestron EdgeHD C9.25, Celestron Nexstar 6SE, Orion equatorial 4.5 Starblast, Orion Dobsonian Grab and Go 4.5 Starblast, and Orion 80MM Refractor. The equipment also includes Celestron Power Binoculars, low power binoculars and various lenses and cameras (iPhone 5, iPhone 10, ZWO CMOS ASI224MC, Canon).