lorenz117
09-04-2007, 05:05 PM
I've got for sale my 2.3m Sirius fibreglass dome. These are about the best and well made domes on the market. I bought this off Malcolm last year, drove up to Canberra, brought it home and it's been stored at my in-laws ever since (see pictures attached). I feel a bit silly about selling it as it's just about every amateurs dream dome and I went to a great deal of trouble to bring it back to Melbourne, but my plans for a permanent setup are being shelved for the time being as I'm planning to head overseas for a while.
Before I dismantled it I checked everything worked. It's in excellent working condition, turns noislessly and without hitches. Same goes for the shutters. Needs a bit of a polish but otherwise will serve just like a new one. I got new rollers for the top shutter from Sirius as these wear out, and new seals so it's ready to install! All fasteners, fittings and the original instructions are also present.
I'm asking $1400 and you pick up - it's located in Altona and will fit in a mid-sized cage. A homemade dome will cost you as much and will not come anywhere near the quality and more importantly useability of this dome.
New you'd pay the following:
Dome Only including mounting ring $3,587.00
Ship to Melbourne $985.00
TOTAL $4572.00
So at this price save over $3100 for one that works like new, and has been in service so you know everything goes together well. If you live in Melbourne this is even more of a bargain.
It gets even better for those that would be interested in automation. My plan was to have it fully automated so I could drive it from the study for imaging. The solution from Sirius is no doubt excellent but the prices are a little on the astronomical side:
Motorised Dome Rotation $2,240.00
Motorised Shutters $3,843.00
MaxDome (Computerised dome rotation only) $2,360.00
MaxDome (Rotation and shutter operation) $3,480.00
So I decided on the solution for automated dome rotation provided by Lesve http://users.skynet.be/dppobservatory/Dome%20automation/Dome%20Driver.htm
It's a piece of software that controls Velleman USB boards and is ASCOM compliant, meaning it works with all software. So instead of paying $$$ for Maxdome, this system only requires the azimuth and home sensors from Technical Innovations.
I have obtained the entire kit from various sources, including software, sensors, motor control board and light dimmer control. I paid $390 for these and will be willing to part with them for $200 to the buyer of the dome, and you save shipping all the bits over from the US to boot.
All thats left is to buy the motor drive from either technical innovations (cheap) or Sirius (not so cheap) or build your own with a motor and drive wheel, and wire into the usb relay board (really cheap). If you add up the cost of the dome, control hardware and a motor drive you'll get to about $2000 in total. That compares more than favourably to $9172 from Sirius for a dome with automated rotation.
This kit is also ready for shutter automation, but you'd have to get or make the hardware for that yourself. I was just going to open the shutter manually at the start of the night. I figured I can do that much myself and save $3800 (shutter mechanisms from Sirius).
Any questions please fire away or PM me!
Before I dismantled it I checked everything worked. It's in excellent working condition, turns noislessly and without hitches. Same goes for the shutters. Needs a bit of a polish but otherwise will serve just like a new one. I got new rollers for the top shutter from Sirius as these wear out, and new seals so it's ready to install! All fasteners, fittings and the original instructions are also present.
I'm asking $1400 and you pick up - it's located in Altona and will fit in a mid-sized cage. A homemade dome will cost you as much and will not come anywhere near the quality and more importantly useability of this dome.
New you'd pay the following:
Dome Only including mounting ring $3,587.00
Ship to Melbourne $985.00
TOTAL $4572.00
So at this price save over $3100 for one that works like new, and has been in service so you know everything goes together well. If you live in Melbourne this is even more of a bargain.
It gets even better for those that would be interested in automation. My plan was to have it fully automated so I could drive it from the study for imaging. The solution from Sirius is no doubt excellent but the prices are a little on the astronomical side:
Motorised Dome Rotation $2,240.00
Motorised Shutters $3,843.00
MaxDome (Computerised dome rotation only) $2,360.00
MaxDome (Rotation and shutter operation) $3,480.00
So I decided on the solution for automated dome rotation provided by Lesve http://users.skynet.be/dppobservatory/Dome%20automation/Dome%20Driver.htm
It's a piece of software that controls Velleman USB boards and is ASCOM compliant, meaning it works with all software. So instead of paying $$$ for Maxdome, this system only requires the azimuth and home sensors from Technical Innovations.
I have obtained the entire kit from various sources, including software, sensors, motor control board and light dimmer control. I paid $390 for these and will be willing to part with them for $200 to the buyer of the dome, and you save shipping all the bits over from the US to boot.
All thats left is to buy the motor drive from either technical innovations (cheap) or Sirius (not so cheap) or build your own with a motor and drive wheel, and wire into the usb relay board (really cheap). If you add up the cost of the dome, control hardware and a motor drive you'll get to about $2000 in total. That compares more than favourably to $9172 from Sirius for a dome with automated rotation.
This kit is also ready for shutter automation, but you'd have to get or make the hardware for that yourself. I was just going to open the shutter manually at the start of the night. I figured I can do that much myself and save $3800 (shutter mechanisms from Sirius).
Any questions please fire away or PM me!