"Misty Glen Observatory".....Reborn

[JohnG (John)]

Hi all

After my relocation to Cootamundra, the rebuild of my Observatory was the next big job.

The "Misty Glen Observatory" is now ready for 1st light and final calibrations. .

Main equipment consists of a Takahashi FS-128 (5") Refractor, with an SBig ST4000XCM CCD Camera, Canon EOS 350D, all TeleVue eyepieces. A Dewbuster control unit and Kendrick heater straps keep the objective dry, the whole thing is mounted on a Losmandy G-11 with Gemini slaved to an old P4 computer with wireless connection to the main computer in the house. A Takahashi TSA-102 will also be used with this setup as a purely imaging scope.

Special thanks to Bill (Glenhuon) and Frank (Spearo) for their help and advice.

Cheers

JohnG

[Hagar (Doug)]

Looks good John. I will try and get up in the next couple of weeks to have a look. Now get imaging and show me what that new camera can do.

[h0ughy (David)]

LOL thought they were unusually large mushrooms on the fence line. I am envious of the setup John

[I.C.D (Ian)]

John,
Your obesrvatory what make is it or did you build it your self

[JohnG (John)]

Cheers Guys....

No worries Doug, will be here, hopefully will have 1st light tonight, need to do a drift alignment then calibrate the camera..

Hey Dave, you know I am not allowed to grow those .

Hi I.C.D. it is a Sirius Dome, 2.3M Home model:

http://www.siriusobservatories.com/

Cheers

JohnG

[sheeny (Al)]

Looks good, John!

I will drop down one day to see first hand!

Al.

[Phil]

Nice stuff John looks the same as my od.
Nice setup too.
Phil

[spearo (Frank)]

Misty Glen looks great
It was good to be able to help

lets see some piccies now!
frank

[Bassnut (Fred)]

Very clean and smick. Well thought out, well built and classy. Look forward to awesome pics from a droolworthy 5" Tak.

[marc4darkskies (Marcus)]

Ah ha! Another Sirius-dome-on-a-wooden-deck person! Very nice and well done!!

Quite similar to my setup too - http://www.pbase.com/gailmarc/observatory. I operate wirelessly from inside a nice warm house as well ... not much room to manoeuvre in a 2.3m.

BTW, in its last incarnation, was your dome on a deck or a slab? Just curious, most people seem to want to bung them on a slab.

Cheers, Marcus

[JohnG (John)]

Thanks for the kind comments guys.

No worries Al, anytime.

Thanks Phil, Fred and Frank.

The previous setup, Marcus, was on a wooden frame with a compressed cement floor, I found that the cold came up throught the carpet and waterproofing was a pain in the ..., I could not transport that base over to Cootamundra so I went for a full wooden deck planking floor with a 12mm plywood base over the top of that. I had used a full wooden structure in the original Misty Glen Observatory at Cooma and found that full wood was ideal and, although it was a ROR, the timber kept dew at bay longer by being slightly above ambient, I feel that the timber deck in this case, will do the same. I still have a few things to do, steps, bit more painting and finalise the electrical layout.

Cheers

JohnG

[Ric]

It's looking great John, all coming together very nicely.

Looking forward to your first light in the new location.

Cheers