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Brent,
when I first built my dome a lot of niggly layout problems didn't
reveal themselves until after months and years of visual and imaging.
For example, when I imaged Mars during apparitions in 2001, 2003, 2005
most of the frustration was due to how poorly I'd thought out
the layout of something in the dome.
IE, the power supplies would give off heat right near the open bottom end
of the 8" F7 Newt when I imaged anywhere east when Mars was a
morning object.
Also, as I sat at the imaging PC, the Newt OTA would hover over my
head. My body would be giving off heat that affected the top open
end of the OTA....If I had a coffee, forget imaging Mars altogether.
These problems caused me to have two control stations in the dome.
One on the western side of my deskspace, one east.
The control PC (Stepper Drive ) sits to the south.
To swap from one control spot to the other only means lifting up the
keyboard and mouse and plugging it into the west/east side.
The Stepper Drive handpad can also reach both sides from it's Northern wall tether point.
All of this changed though when I started to remotely control the scope
from inside the shed and house.
I initially used a handpad extension but then went totally wired LAN.
If I am controlling the scope locally I sit either at the west station or
east station, depending on my target.
The 8" F7 scope is now a 12" F5 and space is a lttle more confined,
but still not a big problem.
2 adults can be in the dome at once easily.
The Imaging PC sits under the wraparound desk at the northern end
inside a box with castors. All cabling to the GEM pier is via in slab
conduits so I can walk right round my scope and not trip on
a cable.
Hope this helps,
Steve
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