Observatoire du Marouzeau.

[astrogardener]

Very impressed with some of the observatories I've seen here.

I built mine because I got fed up lugging my 6 inch refractor in and out of the house. Now I have it on a pedestel so it's rock steady (those old Synta tripods were never any good for something as large as the 6 inch!!)

Also we live on quite an exposed area and the wind used to be a problem, especially estimating variables down to mag 13.

[laser_jock99]

Looks like a interesting build- are those steel panel walls?

[JamesF]

The pictures make it look huge. How big is it?

James

[astrogardener]

Hi, yes it's 10' by 8', wooden framed, clad with steel roofing,

[stuartjones]

Hi there just being nosy have you got any other pics of this. looks like a nice out the way location, bet you get some great viewing out there?

[astrogardener]

Hi Stuart, here's a few more photo's. The alt-azimuth mount is homemade from a swivel chair (upside down), it can be raised higher by the original gas compression action. The other mount is for imaging, but my observing is 99% visual variable star work.

[ollypenrice]

I see you have a couple of light buckets outside as well.

That's looking great and admirably spacious.

BTW, I have one of those six inch refractors and they're pretty darned good in my view.

Olly

[stuartjones]

Hi there astrogardener many thanks for posting some more pictures, love the idea for the mount so simple yet so effective, it's great to see how people get around things by making there own specially when it's such a pricey hobby.

Thanks again it's cured my nosyness.

Cheers stu

[astrogardener]

Hi there astrogardener many thanks for posting some more pictures, love the idea for the mount so simple yet so effective, it's great to see how people get around things by making there own specially when it's such a pricey hobby.

Thanks again it's cured my nosyness.

Cheers stu

Cheers Stu, the mount was something I knocked up last winter while I had the EQ5 stripped down. I'm probably going to go back to an equatorial as I'm planning to get into photometry. The other mount, the EQ3, will struggle carrying the 6 inch I think.

We get pretty good skies here, all the lights in the surrounding hamlets go off at midnight and switch on just before daybreak.

Apart from wasps always trying to build nests every summer, the odd viper and kamikaze bats, it's not a bad place to do astronomy!

Cheer's,

Doug.

[astrogardener]

I see you have a couple of light buckets outside as well.

That's looking great and admirably spacious.

BTW, I have one of those six inch refractors and they're pretty darned good in my view.

Olly

Cheer's Olly, yes, I like the 6 inch refractor too, I changed the focuser over to a Baader and tweaked the lenses, and added a handle (should be optional on large refractors!) very pleased with it.

Cheer's,

Doug.