Carole gave a talk on the different types of Home Observatories you could have, either DIY or ready made, including some of the hardware needed.
She said that it was good to be able to start up and shut down quickly, save having to set up every time and de-rig when you are tired and just want to get to bed, especially when the clouds can’t make up their mind. Also being able to shelter from the wind, frost and local light pollution, and have a place to keep your equipment rather than storing it inside the house.
Styles of Garden Observatories include:
DIY or converted bought sheds in different styles – wood or plastic:
- Roll of Roof (ROR),
- ROR with a warm room,
- Removed Roof,
- Open Flap roof
- Converted Potting Shed.
- Home-made domed Sheds, with rotating round or Hexagonal Domes
- Converted hen house
Sheds that rolled away from the Astro Kit
- Roll off on Rails
- Roll off Tent
- Roll off on wheels (disguised as a Tardis)
Temporary tent observatories (good for short periods or Astronomy Camps)
- Kendrick tents (sleep in one side open for Astro kit on other side)
- Skytech Circular tent
- Explore Scientific Square
- Motorcycle Bike Cover / Shelter /Garage
Quirky observatories:
- Frame work covered in Tarpaulin (on wheels)
- Circular rotating dome on wheels made of plastic corrugated Sheets.
Ready Made Observatories: (more expensive option and some of these still need to be assembled):
- Pulsar
- Pulsar dome only (can be mounted on a shed/garage)
- Exploradome
- SkyShedPOD (With a note that a new observatory is being produced by Skyshed called the POD S which has a slotted dome and can be automated.)
Members bought Observatories:
- Carole’s Skypod including her Pod Zenith Table and how it works
- Roberto’s IKI wooden ROR observatory and it’s construction
- John Hulme’s “soon to be” Astronomica Observatory with sectioned overlapping sliding motorised roof
Member’s DIY Observatories:
- Noel’s Roll off Observatory (converted from a dog food store)
- Duncan’s ROR Observatory (in France) Built elevated due to ground mist from a stream in the garden.
- Mark Shelley’s double width ROR observatory Double width to accommodate two imaging rigs, Plus the sad story of how the wind took his roof off and he had to re-build it.
The talk finished with a 6 minute time lapse video Mark Shelley did of his observatory build (to the tune of the well known Benny Hill music), which in real terms took 3 months to build).
Questions afterwards included an enquiry on keeping the damp out of an Observatory. Both Carole and Roberto said they used dehumidifiers. They need to be capable of cold temperatures and some recommendations were made.
And finally a novel movable housing for a fixed telescope in the style of the ‘Tardis’.
Prepared by Carole Pope