Observatory

Building a permanent site for a telescope has always been a dream. Unfortunately you never know how 'permanent' anything is. I decided on a structure that was durable enough to handle New England's worst, but portable so that in the event we did move again, it could be easily taken down and reassembled in another location.

A wooden deck was used as the 'foundation'. The deck was placed on 7 concrete sonotubes. The flooring consists of trex boards which are extermely durable all-weather material. Since the original construction nearly 3 years ago, they have not degraded even slightly! As I mention below, I failed to realize the inherent problem of gross instability in an all wooden deck set-up, so remember that you will need to either reinforce the deck center, or better yet, put in a concrete pad in the center!! If you don't you will be observing or worse, imaging, in a perennial earthquake!!

Durable and easy to assemble are both features of Sirius Domes. This is their 'School Model'. My 7-year-old son was able to handle a good part of the 'construction'. The parts are top quality marine-grade fiberglass and have thus far easily withstood the worst winters in 25 years here. The odd-looking 'bump-out' on the left is actually one of the coolest options I have seen in this type of structure. This is called an 'outpanel' and allows for placement of equipment, laptops etc. inside (see below). There are 8 panels which bolt together. The dome is constructed of 4 individual panels. Considering the time and effort put into the telescope project, I felt the housing investment was well worth it. Sirius, an Australian-based company , now has reliable US distributors.

Fully assembled and ready to go from the outside. Now after 3 years of trying to use equipment on a wooden deck and experiencing the frustrations of dealing with constant vibrations, I learned from my mistake and fixed the problem once and for all

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