Hi all,
I am having a little trouble with the rollers on my dome. I think I may have found the problem, but would like some advice on how to go about fixing it, or thow some ideas in.
The problem I am having is on my Dome which is home built is the dome is not quite round it actually is an egg shape. It varies by 15mm. I measured this by using a Pole with another pole inside it. Then I marked one way then 90 degrees from it and came up with the measurement. I measured the top of the base and this varies by only about 4mm. I have 6 rollers on it like the picture below which are fastened onto the dome and roll on the round tubing on the base.
Anyway I think the main problem is the dome being egg shaped. The problem I have is correcting it. I have a couple of ideas which could work let me know what you think.
1. Remove the dome, stand it on it's edge and hang from the other end to try and squash it back to round.
2. Attach some sort of cable to it with some sort of way to reduce the length, squashing the dome in.
Mind you the dome is made of 20mm square tubing, is sheeted with colourbond steel. Weighs quite a bit.
Anyway let me know what you think.
http://www.theastroweb.com/astronomy/temp/obsroll1.jpg
http://www.theastroweb.com/astronomy/temp/obsroll2.jpg
More pictures can be found on my observatory page at
http://www.theastroweb.com/astronomy/