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After the concrete dried for a week, some expansion joints were cut (gonna need a few more I'm pretty sure), and then the dome which had been pre-assembled in the garage was dismantled and re-assembled in place.
All the calculations were done about height and position, but needed to be done in-situ for the final positioning. I assembled the dome with the door facing north, but once everything was installed, realised that the centre of the scope axis was offset the other way, and I would not have clear view at the zenith. If I offset the dome, then I had no room to walk in without smashing in to the scope.
At that point, it started to rain, so shut up everything, and hopes that it would be waterproof. The shots show no water ingress, other than around the base which is just going to happen until I bolt down the dome and silicone around the entire base later this week.
Tonight I had to man-handle the dome and spin the base 180 degrees to get the position right, so the door faces south now.
So, all that's left to do is actually have the electrician come and hook in the power to the meter, and put some RJ45 connectors on the CAT6 cable, and then plug all the bits in to the laptop and give it a run. And maybe get some rubber mats for the floor.
I'm also running a remote webcam in there (primarily so I can eyeball what is going on), as I will be running it remotely from inside the house.
The plan, once the equipment has all been bedded in, it to try and use DC3's ACP to automate the entire thing (probably a big ask given the LX200GPS is probably not really the kind of mount you want to do this with), but they designed their software with that in mind many years ago, so it was at least FEASIBLE once upon a time.
Hope someone finds this useful, and if anyone needs any more details of what was done at various stages of the project (if I can remember), then feel free to jump in, and I'll do my best to fill in the gaps.
Turbo
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