Observatory

Without an observatory, you quickly become very proficient at setting up and tearing down the telescope. But there are many benefits to having a permanent observatory where the telescope is always set up and all that needs to be done it to open the roof. If the clouds roll in, then it's no big deal to shut the roof and call it a night.

The ideas for the design were all gained from studying the many observatories detailed on the Internet, especially the dedicated forum on Cloudy Nights. By sharing their observatory designs, all those who have gone before have helped me - and with this page I hope to help those who wish to build their own observatory in the future.

The key design goals for the observatory:

Lessons I learned from others:

Roof Design

Here are some closeups that show the custom made steel reinforcements for the roof truss, and the cast iron v-groove wheels and angle iron on the wall top plate.

The Observatry wall is slightly higher than the warm room, so the angle iron can be mounted just above the warm room roof.

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