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The Observatory was constructed from a standard 8 foot by
10 foot garden shed with the help of some of my friends from the Southern Maryland Astronomical Society: Jeff and Pam
Humbert, Mike Conte, Walter Rison and Lee Ranta. Also, old friends, Vic Gauzza and Ray Simpson helped
with the construction. Without all of their help, the project would not have been completed!
The Observatory
has a simple roll off roof of my own design. Bottom line, it has been in place for 3 years and it works - everything
is nice and dry! The scope in the Observatory is a Meade 7" Mak LX200GPS scope. It is mounted on a "beefed
up" pier, on a Celestron wedge.
It was easy to build the Observatory. The hard part
was deciding what to put into the observatory, not only the size of the telescope, but the size of the computer table and
more important in my case where to put the pier, so that I could have the best view, not only of my limited sky - but also
to make sure that I could see Polaris. I also had to make sure that the telescope would not get hit when I
rolled back the roof to close the observatory. Here is a photo of the inside of my Observatory.
This photo was taken from the South West side of the building.
You can see the fan, (on a timer) installed in the wall - on the back wall is another "window" cut out of the building, but
covered with screen. That allows air to be pulled through the room during the summer months.
The desk to the right
of the observing chair is for my laptop, (I use the monitor, not the laptop screen when imaging) and also has an internet
connection to the house network. There is also a small fan on the right side of the desk that keeps the bugs
away during the summer months. The desk to the left of the observing chair has a FM tuner with speakers, a VCR and old
Vic color monitor. So, when imaging you can listen to your favorite radio station, watch an old movie or record video
from your camera. Yes, I still have to go into the house for refreshments or to use the rest room!
Here is a closeup view of the roof wheel, nested in the slot.
There are two slots on each side of the building. To open the roof, you have to push it up in front and then slide it
forward. You might notice in the third photo below that the roof has some "outriggers". There are two
of them on each side of the roof and as you slide the roof along they keep the roof from falling off of the building.
When closed there are 4 latches that need to be closed. Two are in the front of the building on the outside, one on
each side of the door, (see the first photo below), and on the inside of the building, at the back on each side, there
are two more. These hold the roof down in high winds. It's very simple and it works. Also, all the way around
the top of the building is a piece of garage door rubber gasket, so when the roof drops down into the wheel slots the building
is sealed.
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