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Doomed Dome


CELESCOPE

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Well at last the dome arrived , all excited , and watched the guys starting to assemble it piece by piece , seems like this is a new modified dome which comes in sections , up it went ,grand stuff , 4 hrs later , Hmmm somethings wrong , after a while got the bad news , the brackets holding the rollers for the dome top are not right , holes in the wrong place and brackets wrong as well , so on to the factory to make a new set of brackets , 3 daywait , so Dome all fixed roof locked, and dome weather proofed , but sadly ole Rog cant get to use it , have taken pics as it went up section by section ,but will wait till its all done ,then i will do a little review ,

Cheers

Rog :) :)

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oh, so its Rog's fault? phew.... at least I can now own up to some of the other stuff I have recently obtained then (2" Diagonal, OAG, OIII, UHC, MartinB's wedge-on-loan)...... or not.. no, wait, pretend I never mentioned any of that.

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oh, so its Rog's fault? phew.... at least I can now own up to some of the other stuff I have recently obtained then (2" Diagonal, OAG, OIII, UHC, MartinB's wedge-on-loan)...... or not.. no, wait, pretend I never mentioned any of that.

Erm, looks like us easterners have been on a spree. I've picked up a TAL100, diagonal, colour filters, new EP, collimator, camping gear...still got a few bits on my list yet...That's why we've been under a blanket of cloud for eons now. There's no point denying it Steve, them upstairs see everything...

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Yeehaa, the weathers going to be great now for the next 3 days. Clear nights and perfect seeing. Cheer up Rog, you'll really enjoy looking at everyones images!

Sorry about the bad news Rog, but it's getting closer

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May a thousand storms rain upon you Martin ehehheheheheheh , ONLY JOKING ,

yes its pain i know , but it will soon be sorted ,and then i can when finished imaging , just close the door and retire to bed , and no more packing away hehehehehheh

Rog

:)

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just close the door and retire to bed , and no more packing away hehehehehheh

Rog

:)

Unless you fancy a quick trial stack, or look at what you have caught etc. :)

The shut down time is the best bit, but close behind is the start up time. A fixed setup is absolutely great Rog. Enjoy it when its done, I know you will.

Kaptain Klevtsov

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 10 years later...

I too recently purchased a Pulsar Dome (2.2m) and I have to say at £3,500 its very expensive for a few fibre glass panels. On collection Pulsar had not even bothered to put bubble wrap around the panels which were totally unprotected. No matter how much care was taken wedging and tapeing bits of cardboard to prevent damage, by the time we got it home there were substantial scratches. Prior to assembly the fibre glass was cracked on one of the thin sections around the rollers, with holes for roller plates being miles out on some panels. In fact one of the side panels had no holes drilled in it at all! Astonishingly some of the rollers looked second hand and appeared to have run marks and chips missing from their surface. On assembly we found the panels were not only thin but of poor quality with the seams not aligning correctly. If the outside aligned, the critical inside region where the rollers locate was not aligned and no amount of adjustment corrected for this. On the Pulsar video advertisement the door is shown to have a high quality locking system at top and bottom of the door. The one supplied to me however has only a poor quality central lock which latches directly onto the thin fibre glass door frame (not a metal latch plate). I am certain that if I give it a good tug it will open smashing the frame in the process. The assembly instructions are large but mostly pertaining to other products Pulsar would like to sell, they lack clarity and in some areas are incorrect. This starts with the 'technical support' phone number on the front page which tells you to ring another number which goes through a load of useless information before telling you you have to leave a message and after all this the mailbox is full! I made four calls before I got through to Pulsar and when I did I was left with the impression the recipient was on site and didn't really want to speak to his client. However he did confirm the manual was wrong but they hadn't bothered to correct it as they were too busy! So my expensive dome is now assembled and I'm not too happy with it and will need to take remedial action of my own to make it do what it should do ...So would I buy another, NO! ...If I had to do this again I would make a shed, cubed in shape with a circular cut out in the flat roof and purchase a new spherical septic tank for about £500 which cut in half would be ideal for a dome, I would run this on skateboard wheels. I would cut an opening and make a cover from plastic fascia sections or similar. I did not buy an expensive Pulsar pier but made my own from a 1.8m long 14" diameter black corrugated plastic drainage pipe concreted into the base. I then fitted it with a blue plastic water pipe as a conduit for cables and filled it with concrete. The result is an excellent  rock solid pier for £29 + 2.5 barrow loads of concrete. Pulsar recommend their soft rubber mat for the floor but I have found B&Q sell a similar interlocking soft mat for £9 a box. As I recall, a box is sufficient for a 4' x 6' area (from memory) so a couple of boxes is probably all I need. Such a system could probably be fabricated for not much more than £1,000, be less hassle and a considerable saving. So if anyone is considering an observatory, I hope you will find this both interesting and helpful.

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1 hour ago, WilsonM said:

I too recently purchased a Pulsar Dome (2.2m) and I have to say at £3,500 its very expensive for a few fibre glass panels. On collection Pulsar had not even bothered to put bubble wrap around the panels which were totally unprotected. No matter how much care was taken wedging and tapeing bits of cardboard to prevent damage, by the time we got it home there were substantial scratches. Prior to assembly the fibre glass was cracked on one of the thin sections around the rollers, with holes for roller plates being miles out on some panels. In fact one of the side panels had no holes drilled in it at all! Astonishingly some of the rollers looked second hand and appeared to have run marks and chips missing from their surface. On assembly we found the panels were not only thin but of poor quality with the seams not aligning correctly. If the outside aligned, the critical inside region where the rollers locate was not aligned and no amount of adjustment corrected for this. On the Pulsar video advertisement the door is shown to have a high quality locking system at top and bottom of the door. The one supplied to me however has only a poor quality central lock which latches directly onto the thin fibre glass door frame (not a metal latch plate). I am certain that if I give it a good tug it will open smashing the frame in the process. The assembly instructions are large but mostly pertaining to other products Pulsar would like to sell, they lack clarity and in some areas are incorrect. This starts with the 'technical support' phone number on the front page which tells you to ring another number which goes through a load of useless information before telling you you have to leave a message and after all this the mailbox is full! I made four calls before I got through to Pulsar and when I did I was left with the impression the recipient was on site and didn't really want to speak to his client. However he did confirm the manual was wrong but they hadn't bothered to correct it as they were too busy! So my expensive dome is now assembled and I'm not too happy with it and will need to take remedial action of my own to make it do what it should do ...So would I buy another, NO! ...If I had to do this again I would make a shed, cubed in shape with a circular cut out in the flat roof and purchase a new spherical septic tank for about £500 which cut in half would be ideal for a dome, I would run this on skateboard wheels. I would cut an opening and make a cover from plastic fascia sections or similar. I did not buy an expensive Pulsar pier but made my own from a 1.8m long 14" diameter black corrugated plastic drainage pipe concreted into the base. I then fitted it with a blue plastic water pipe as a conduit for cables and filled it with concrete. The result is an excellent  rock solid pier for £29 + 2.5 barrow loads of concrete. Pulsar recommend their soft rubber mat for the floor but I have found B&Q sell a similar interlocking soft mat for £9 a box. As I recall, a box is sufficient for a 4' x 6' area (from memory) so a couple of boxes is probably all I need. Such a system could probably be fabricated for not much more than £1,000, be less hassle and a considerable saving. So if anyone is considering an observatory, I hope you will find this both interesting and helpful.

Absolutely no excuse for a poor quality product , (If the outside aligned, the critical inside region where the rollers locate was not aligned and no amount of adjustment corrected for this) probably caused by the mould being in one piece so the flange has a taper to allow it to come out the mould ,split mould would cure this but takes longer to make as you have to repair the seam, though gives a better join , no excuse for misaligned holes , you would make a flash mould that fits over panel with the correct holes in ,easy fit over panel  and mark holes  and  drill , every part of their process is flawed and being such a simple product to make too ,  obviously no quality control in any area , poor locking overcome with simple engineering , yes expensive for a poorly thought out product that could be easily solved .

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You can buy a really sturdy 4.4m = 14' diameter fiberglass dome known as a calf rearing igloo for under £2000.

Cut your own observation slit in the roof, add a shutter and rotation rollers and you're golden.

They are produced by an agricultural silo manufacturing company in the southern EU.

External finish looks fine and you even get a free front door frame to add your own door to taste. LOTR anybody?

Available in plain, high gloss white [or neatly ribbed, grass green from an alternative source.]

Downside is the size and weight at 480lbs which will require a lot of friends or [better] a crane/hoist.

If I had a clear southerly view I'd snap one up without a moment's hesitation for my 7" refractor and f/8 10" newt.

They'd make great astro club observatories if anyone has the skills to do a decent obs. conversion. :thumbsup:

I probably shouldn't share copyrighted advertising material here so took a pic at a local calf breeder's farm.

His is years old and well used so make some allowances for the cosmetics.

P1270204 rsz 500.JPG

Edited by Rusted
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I think it would take an enormous amount of work to convert that to a viable dome observatory.  A timber roll off roof observatory would be easier.

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2 hours ago, Rusted said:

You can buy a really sturdy 4.4m = 14' diameter fiberglass dome known as a calf rearing igloo for under £2000.

Cut your own observation slit in the roof, add a shutter and rotation rollers and you're golden.

They are produced by an agricultural silo manufacturing company in the southern EU.

External finish looks fine and you even get a free front door frame to add your own door to taste. LOTR anybody?

Available in plain, high gloss white [or neatly ribbed, grass green from an alternative source.]

Downside is the size and weight at 480lbs which will require a lot of friends or [better] a crane/hoist.

If I had a clear southerly view I'd snap one up without a moment's hesitation for my 7" refractor and f/8 10" newt.

They'd make great astro club observatories if anyone has the skills to do a decent obs. conversion. :thumbsup:

I probably shouldn't share copyrighted advertising material here so took a pic at a local calf breeder's farm.

His is years old and well used so make some allowances for the cosmetics.

P1270204 rsz 500.JPG

Good for imaging the Milky Way ? :grin:

Dave

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No doubt with a little imagination and DIY skills one of these could be utilised/converted.

The fender folds up so the box or trailer can be placed in front of the door for simple no handling weaning

this is a double skinned and insulated pig pen, I think it is called an Aardvark Arc.

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Well, it's a more suitable size and already has the start of a shutter ?  But any dome is complicated, particularly if you want it to rotate automatically to follow the sky.  I have experience of my micro dome ?

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3 hours ago, Gina said:

I think it would take an enormous amount of work to convert that to a viable dome observatory.  A timber roll off roof observatory would be easier.

Hi Gina. I've given this dome conversion quite a lot of thought and was close to purchase until I discovered the weight.

I work alone and needed the dome to be lifted fifteen feet off the ground. I should have hired a Manitou telescopic loader.

Not everyone wants an ROR and the value of these Calf Igloos is truly remarkable for such a large obs. organ donor.

The central roof panel is thick, smooth GRP and unobstructed well past the zenith.

A couple of raised marine plywood ribs would be glassed internally [GRP fillet] for the observation slit and shutter.

These would provide the necessary strength from cutting away the observation slit.

A smaller [cosmetic] fillet using a matching colour will weatherproof the ribs externally.

The large opening can be very easily closed off with a flat, plywood panel carrying a suitable access door.

Or, a female pattern can be made from the dome surface and a spherical mould taken from that and affixed to "the arch."

I did this for my GRP sports car to make it into a proper hard top.

Where a previous owner had cut a huge hole for a folding, rag top, sun roof.

The sturdy, existing base rim of the Igloo can easily be furnished directly with wheels on brackets.

Or a plywood base ring bolted on for rotation on wheels on top of the obs. walls.

Any further questions? :biggrin:

Apologies to the OP for hijacking his thread.

I weep for you as one who came close to ordering a 3.5m dome from Pulsar.

Non availability seems to have saved my <cough> Danish bacon. ?

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Ah well, if you're a whiz at glass fibre construction that's a different matter.  I've done some glass fibre work many decades ago but that was tiny compared with a full sized dome.

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2 hours ago, Cozzy said:

Sorry Rog; we hijacked your post a bit there.

really hope you get it sorted sharpish  ?

 

clear skies.

Tim

Don't worry too much Tim, It's an 11 year old thread. I'd hope it's sorted by now :D

 

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32 minutes ago, Scott said:

Don't worry too much Tim, It's an 11 year old thread. I'd hope it's sorted by now :D

 

Doh, Absolutly brilliant, nice spot; never even clocked that. ??

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