[Lester]

Hi everyone,

Three Hills is the name of our farm, and the observatory is on the highest hill. Was originally built by myself at age 16 in 1973. The observatory was a dome shape, and modified in 1980 to house 16" f4.5 Newtonian. The opening is 4 feet wide. Half inch galvinized water pipe is the frame. Cladded with 26 gauge galv. steel sheet. The wall is concrete, and observatory rotates on it with 6 solid sack truck sized wheels.

Soon after it was built, I was regularly greeted inside by inch ants. So a moat was built of aluminium sheet, filled with water and a layer of sump oil poured on top, to stop any amphibious creepy crawlies from entering. As well as stopping the bugs, it also stops any breeze from comming in over the wall and dust.

Everything is powered via Cigarette socket of vehicle. Unfortunately the track on top of the cement wall is not perfectly round and causes a bit of friction when turning. Otherwise I am very happy with the set up.