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Hi guys and girls, I would like your thoughts on my grand design for my observatory as Kevin McCloud is busy and I am looking for that little gem of advice which may help me navigate around or avoid a common or not so common problem already addressed by the informed users of SL. I have a (second) shed measuring 2.5m x 3.0m and this is to be my observatory with great views 340° of the night sky (tree hiding NNW so not an issue). I live in the country 10 miles away from the nearest town so light pollution isn't an issue although I'm not in a dark skies site I have looked at the website below and found my area is in a reasonably good area for darkness. So to not ruin the aesthetics of part of our garden I have been looking for alternatives to the rolling roof option. I have a flat roof at a slight angle to accommodate rain and have decided the best option is to cut the roof in half and open it up like a book with both halves folding on hinges to 170° being supported on chain with a rope pulls to pull them back in and dampeners to stop them slamming down. There will be a fixed pier and suitable wiring for plug sockets, red wall light and a consumer box. A desk along one wall and storage space. What are your thoughts? I will post pictures when i begin! http://www.avex-asso.org/dossiers/wordpress/?page_id=127&lang=en_GB#

I and my girlfriend was out in the forest and looking for Sweden's ancient history. We found what we looked for, but also something totally different, three old observatories. That's the observatories that was mentioned in the text about Swedish old observatories, translated to english by me. We had already drawed plan to visit this observatory, Tamm's observatoru in the future. But didn't expect to find it here. Some photos from this lucky day and information I have collected: http://www.astrofriend.eu/astronomy/observatory-sites/tamms-observatory/01-tamms-observatory.html /Lars

The last observatory we visited in Croatia was the Rijeka Observatory. It's a 4.5 km walk from city center or it's possible to take the bus 7A to the observatory. They have a Cafe on top of the observatory with a panorama view. Even a planetarium. Here is my report from the observatory: http://www.astrofriend.eu/astronomy/observatory-sites/rijeka-observatory-croatia/01-rijeka-observatory-croatia.html Later I will have more photos, it will be sent to me from their archive. I make a notice when they are online. We got a lot of exiting things to see in Croatia ! /Lars

Hi, One more astronomy related thing on our travel in Croatia. The Naval Observatory in Pula. It's very accessible, just a short walk from the old town of Pula. If I understand it correct it's an amateur astronomy club that take care of this building. Sorry to say we missed the guided tours by one month. Here is my report from that observatory: http://www.astrofriend.eu/astronomy/observatory-sites/pula-naval-observatory-croatia/pula-naval-observatory-croatia.html I hope to get more information later from the astronomy club. /Lars

Hi there I recently installed an EcoAir DD1 Mk5 dehumidifier in my Pulsar Observatory. Looking for recommendations for scheduling. I currently have the unit scheduled on between 05:00 and 09:00. I’m thinking that in addition to this I should probably have the unit running during the evening as well. Or… perhaps there are more optimal schedules? I live in central Scotland. Kind Regards Paul.

Day 1 12/10/2015 Well Ive decided to build a mobile Observatory to allow easy movement and hopefully set up on sites quicker.This Blog will record the process in the various stages of the build conversion project. Donor vehicle is A 2004 Mercedes Benz frontline Ambulance with 200k on the clock. The engine is misfiring and preliminary checks would indicate piston trouble, as the engine is misfiring / lumpy and has excess back pressure at the oil filler cap. First job is to remove the engine from the vehicle as sump access is not good, I will likely need to drop the sump . Hopefully there will not be any major damage to the engine bores as that will mean a replacement engine. The conversion will take approx 6 stages to completion and a build time due to costs of around 10 months. 1/ Repair Engine unit. 2/ Install additional imobiliser,security lock upgrades and tracker system. 3/ Fit large sliding roof 4/ Fit an elevating Pier 5/ Fit a self leveling system to enable stability on site 6/ Re Enable Power supplies and safety check on electrics

Hello all, After months of trawling through SGL for ideas and inspiration, I've decided to bite the bullet and build a mini garden observatory for my 150PDS on a HEQ5. So many of the builds and threads on here have been brilliant and a testament to this communities ingenuity and skills beyond astronomy! I was fed up with the setup and take down time for my astro setup, especially when my kit normally lived in my office on the 2nd floor. I wanted to build something small as my garden is not very big and I could only get planning permission from the wife if I kept it as small as possible. I did spend a lot of time thinking about how to slide the roof as a lot of the designs here are for sliding roofs that are on wheels / rails. this design is really good but it also meant that I would need additional structures in the garden for the roof to slide on to and that would take up more space. In the end I decided to go for heavy duty drawer slides as my obsy was only going to be as big as the scope 'swing area'. I'll update on this thread as I progress but please bear in mind that I have very limited DIY skills or tools so I am going to take things a little slow and my posts will be filled with mistakes but I guess its all part of the learning process. Part 1 - the HEQ5 mount My first task was to build a pier mount for my HEQ5. For this I used some brake disks after numerous examples posted here. The exact models where TRW Brake Discs Pair Front DF1608 3322937807697 for about £20 on ebay. They seem to fir the HEQ5 perfectly. It was akiller to drill the 16mm holes in them but after a few days and some really shaky arms from the drill vibrations, they were done! Then came a selection of M16 threaded bars to hold everything together and a custom plate for the bottom and some M12 bolds for added strength as these would also go into the concrete pier. The idea was to fill a 200mm wide plastic tube with concrete and place this inside.

I recently motorised my roll off roof obsevatory and have now set it up for less than £25 to be able to remote in from anywhere and open/close the roof. I can then via teamviewer start an imaging sequence with NINA. No more missing clear skies when at work or away from home. Clear skies all

When I post photos and stories about old observatories I get a lot of positive reactions. When I wrote about Stockholm's old observatory I found a very nice and interesting story written almost 90 years ago by the Swedish astronomer Östen Bergstrand. It's written in Swedish. I feel I must spend some hours and translate it into English for all of you that don't talk or read Swedish language, the first four pages are now translated. The article's name in English is: Astronomical observatories in Sweden, by Östen Bergstrand: http://www.astrofriend.eu/astronomy/observatory-sites/swedens-old-observatories/01-swedens-old-observatories.html Let me know if you find it interesting and I translate more of the pages into English. The Swedish language in this article is very old and difficult to translate and my English isn't the best either. But you will understand what's written. /Lars

I have already earlier written an article about the old observatory at Stockholm in Sweden where I live. Only 30 minutes away from my home by the subway. A friend to me, Nippe, told me that he had written an article about that observatory's history. I got permission to use it on my homepage. I have translated it to english (not perfect but I hope you understand the information) and implemented it among my earlier photos from the observatory. http://www.astrofriend.eu/astronomy/observatory-sites/stockholms-observatory/stockholm-observatory.html Nippe's history article is very interesting, a lot of information about the observatory that I wasn't aware about. Enjoy reading ! /Lars

Hi, I have recently bought and mounted a third version of a weather monitoring station, this time a non DIY product - The Lunatico AAG Cloudwatcher and the Solo computer with it. I have been running a weather monitor for five years now, but because i lack front-end coding (or hasn't taken the time learning it) I have been looking for a out-of-the-box product which presents the data in a nice way. The difference between this product and the two other models I have made earlier is the raspberry pi and the webserver capability. The earlier versions hade the capability to output a "safe" or "not safe" command to my sequence program. This version from lunatico has the capability to output a folder in my network with a boltwood textfile, or direct via ASCOM. So far, i have been running this for two weeks now and it is working very nice. The data is presented on a webpage very nice and it has 100% uptime as of now. Just one time, the cloud temperature has been presented wrong, this happend during a weather change from +2 degrees celsius and overcast to about -10 degree celsius with clear sky in a matter in a couple of hours. please feel free to comment and ask questions /Daniel

Hey guys, hoping to launch my Observatory build this year (2.7m Pulsar), and looking for some advice on electrical requirements. Apologies for the brain dump, but when I started typing this up, I just seemed to keep coming up with other questions:-) My observatory site will require a 20m cable run from the house, which I am hoping will be as a spur off existing circuitry, although still to get my tame electrician to give me the low-down on the best solution. Normal approach is to run a sub-surface conduit for both data and electricity supply, however it occurred to me that an alternative approach might be to have above surface conduits running from a supply point at the house to a receiving point at the observatory, somewhat along the lines of caravan hookups at camping sites. Would be interested to hear from folks on this approach, especially if anyone has gone down this route. Assuming we go down the sub-surface route: 1/. What would be an appropriate depth to lay the power and data conduits? 2/. Has anybody had data quality issues when running Ethernet in close proximity to a power conduit? Data medium will be over CAT6, so I’m hoping that the more stringent specifications will be sufficient to remove this as a possible problem. I’m aware of general protocols, which advise against laying data cables parallel to power cables for extended lengths. In the event that this is still an issue what approaches have people taken to providing similar data solutions for their own observatories? 3/. I’m also interested in future proofing the obsy with regards to power sockets. Straight up, the following supply requirements spring to mind: — Mount — Computer — Camera — Dew control (transformed to 12V DC). Possible I may continue to use my existing batteries for this purpose. How have you guys tackled this? — Dehumidifier So I’m thinking 4 double sockets should cater for these and provide me with sufficient expansion for unforeseen circumstance. Is this sufficient? Am I missing something? What is the maximum advisable current draw? Intention is to have all supplies run through a fuse box local to the observatory and of course all plugs will utilise standard domestic fuses as well. With regards to lighting what solutions have you guys gone with? I was thinking about just using a single standard red outdoor light, but it occurred to me that shadows might be an issue and so got to thinking about a surround lighting approach, perhaps using something similar to this: https://hartingtonheath.com/product/i-lumos-10-x-20mm-rgb-led-flexible-waterproof-neon-strip-light/ On the possibility of an entirely WIFI based approach to data. Is this realistic? This would likely require booster units for the existing house WIFI, however I’m thinking that even then, data transfer rates for imaging might be an issue if I graduate to remote operation. Kind Regards Paul.

Good day. I'm addressing this problem with our Scopedome shutter since December 2020. The problem occurs every once in a while either during opening or closing the shutter especially approaching the full-close position wherein it creates a loud "bang" noise. After inspecting the dome, I just found out that the gear is now not touching exactly the latch hole of the shutter. Herewith attached below are the images showing the problem. Any tips/suggestions on how to resolve this issue, particularly on the aligning them, what to use etc., if needs replacement? Excuse me if there are incorrect terms. I'm not that familiar with dome components. Thank you very much. Clear skies.

I thought that this video of perhaps the most well engineered trailer observatory might wake your interest. I was very exited when i first saw the trailer and when Anders (the owner) let me in, my yaw dropped to the ground! You can find the video here: https://youtu.be/LwFM_5mCspU Best regards / Daniel - Exo Photography https://youtu.be/LwFM_5mCspU

Hi all, After having my mind programmed into thinking that home observatories should be round or square I saw an article showing a triangular one. This altered my thinking completely. I had some plywood and other wood left from building my house so took a couple of days to build my observatory. The size was dictated by the tripod base and the movement of the telescope on the mount. I have a NEQ6 Pro and 8inch ACF. The first thing is to align the tripod along the meridian North South with the help of the sun's shadow and the time. This means that with the scope parked it takes up less room. The roof hinges over with the help of a counterweight (not shown on my first video) and the base of the observatory is a equalateral triangle about 5-5 feet high to allow the scope to see most of the sky. This setup allows for access to the scope but is really for remote viewing. The triangular base is approx. 6 feet on each side but the roof requires room on one side to be hinged over. The observatory can be built from 4 sheets of 18mm exterior grade ply and one sheet of 5mm marine ply for the roof and 3 4.2mtr length of 50mm by 100mm treated wood. The cost could be less than £200 if you can use some reclaimed bits. The video I made is about 20 minutes long and involved me thinking and working things out while building it. The triangular construction is much easier and stronger than a square or circular one. The design means I have the scope setup and ready for those short glimpses of clear sky while also able to try remote control of the scope with the roof closed. Since the first video I have put more hinges on the joint and a beam (made from hardwood I bought as an off cut) with a couple of old rail track plates used as counterweights. The next thing is to use a garage door opener to remote the opening of the roof. So here is the link to the video. Please just see it as an example of what you can do, not as a 'this is the way to do it' video. If I was building it again it would be similar but better.

Tickets (free) are now available for the Birmingham University "Astronomy in the city" event on 6th March. Sounds like an interesting evening for newcomers like me. The agenda includes What to see in the sky this month, A talk on super novae Ask the experts An observing season And tea and biscuits! http://www.sr.bham.ac.uk/observatory/astronomyinthecity.php

Hi everybody - I wanted to share my experience of designing and building my own observatory. It is a unique octagonal design and offers pros and cons to more common designs often utilised by the amateur community. If you are considering an observatory project, I hope it gives further inspiration and allows you to find a solution that works for your site, skills, budget and observing aspirations. The story is on my website, link here: https://www.bltastro.com Clear skies!

I’m going to do a 1 or 2 month tour of Europe in my camper van this spring and I would like to visit a planetarium either in Europe or the UK, preferably avoiding London and Paris or other major cities with low emission zones. I visited the planetarium in London when I was a child and thoroughly enjoyed it but I see it is now closed. I am planning to visit the space centre in Leicester on my way home which seems to get mixed reviews regarding having a lot aimed at children. I was surprised at how many planetariums there actually are with a google search. Can anyone recommend one, or a good public observatory? TIA

My better half and I are taking the tin snail to a campsite near Argeles Gazoste in the Pyrenees in June. I note that there is a mountain top obsy; Pic du Midi in that region. The website is in French and I wondered if it is possible to do a 'enthusiastic amateur' type visit. I wonder if anybody has visited and can give me an idea of what is on offer? Many thanks.