Thursday, February 12, 2009
A POD
As seen in the image, my Observatory locates in very light polluted location.
I bought this observatory dome from Ian - Altair Astro UK.
The POD (Persomnal Observatory Dome) is manufactured by a
Canadian company, SkyShed Obsevatories,
After long thinkikg I ended up to this model.
Mainly becouse there was much good feed back about the system.
the other reason was the reasonable price and easy assembly.
Becouse I'm imaging from midle of the town, the outlook of the tower is important too.
I don't want people to complain about ugly shed in the roof deck in the midle of town.
(It's clearly visible to the opposite park)
Inside the dome, there is a 12" Meade LX200GPS on the 700mm steal pier
and lots of assesories.
Even though, there is plenty of space to walk around the scope.
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The model of the observatory is somewhere between traditional dome and roll off shed.
I have tested it under cloudy sky and it will give a really good protection against winds.
An other great thing is, that now I can just close the dome and leave everythin ready for the next imaging session.
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In this type of observatory, there is a problem with imagingn directly to the Zenith.
I solved this problem by a simple modification.
Instead placing telescope pier off center, I made the whole dome to slide away
to clear the Zenith view.
When access to the Zenith is not needed the dome can be pulled back to maximize
the wind protection.
In this image the slideing system is visible. It's a very simple solution where slitin the plywood works as a guide and everything can be locked down by a wing nut attached to an
anchor bolt.
In near future I will attach six wheels under the dome to make it move smoothly.
In above image is a principle, how standard furniture whells will be placed.
Main dimensions of the POD ( Inches)
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2 comments:
This is a very clever little observatory design and I like the way you can slide it back and forward to get the best view.
Thanks,
Yup, it works fine.
I will add an other layer of plywood under the dome, after
the ice has smelted away, to
prevent any water leaks.
J-P
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