Doomed Dome

[DAVE AMENDALL]

I have no idea what happened to this structure...........Dave

[Terry Byatt]

I understand Henry’s observatory known as “”The Beehive” was given to Lancing College in Sussex. 
I had the pleasure to visit his observatory in Sevenoaks in the 1970’s when he had virtually given up observing the moon and was concentrating on the Sun viewing with a spectrohelioscope in h-alpha. By a strange twist of fate my daughter now lives in his old home!

[Stub Mandrel]

Just an observation, it took months of work to sort the secondhand 3m dome on our club observatory.  So many things to put right...

[Skipper Billy]

As a boat builder/repairer I can feel a retirement hobby business coming on...... 😉 

[Tenor Viol]

The conversations in here around observatories have got me thinking.... I currently have major groundworks underway on my garden to terrace it due to a significant slope. That is already completed. The garden now has three levels: base is ground level, +900mm level and a +2,000mm level. The upper level is reasonably spacious. Unfortunately, view to SW - NW is blocked by trees and houses behind... The best place would probably be the small apron at the end of the first tier as it would give view to N and NE and reasonably unobstructed SE to S. 

I think the reality in this house is that it's difficult to justify the space that even a modest building would consume. The main part of the garden is roughly 13m x 13m, with a piece down the side which is about 20m long but it varies in width from about 3.5m to 2m.

I am having electrical points installed outside, which is obviously a big help. I might opt for a permanent pier, which is an improvement on nothing.

I was involved many years ago with a society's obs project: domes are a big challenge, especially if you have to have them made. I know of one silo based observatory as I've visited it. The person concerned is a farmer so it's full-sized with a floor added...