Glass roof or what ??

[Gazgaz (Gary)]

Hello all this is my first time posting and don't even own a telescope.
I am building a home and wanted to have the telescope on the roof (is this an option?).
but figure it will not tolerate the weather and my builder will not allow me up there
so I am wandering about having a glass roof of some sort that I can have the scope raised up to and then control and view remotely by computer and watch on the plasma.
So I was wondering if people have had to deal with this problem
my intent was to buy a 10-12 inch Cassegrain and have it do its thing on its own in this way.
Sorry if this sounds lazy but I thought the technology is probably out there to do so and then I, the family, and visitors can get involved quickly
thanks for your thoughts
Gaz

[Gazgaz (Gary)]

Sorry obviously meant to be a Glass Roof not foof whatever one of them is?

[Kevnool (Kev)]

Would it be easier to have a dome out the backyard.
The raiseing pier idea sounds a bit wobbly to me.
The Idea of the glass roof would not be good for streetlights/security/storms.
Whereas you could remotely control your scope from inside your home.
Lotsa cash involved each way you go.
Cheers Kev.

[spearo (Frank)]

Gaz,
It's great to see someone planning astronomy applications into their new home! Good on ya!
I may be misunderstanding what you suggest but if you mean to have the telescope inside the house but under a glass section of the roof so that it can see through thr roof, then i think you might have some complications.

The biggest problem (aside from the issues associated with additional glass the limited photons will need to travel through) would be the issue of how very dirty the roof/glass surface would get exposed to the element and this would without doubt adversely affect your viewing experience.

As Kev suggests, It may a etter option to consider either a dome o rperhaps an opening section of the rofspace but I suspect preferably, converting a shed or building a home made observatory in the backyard would be a better way to go. You can still control most if not all operation remotely (but it's not quite as simple as it first appears i think).

I like the original concept though: glass roof, telescope under it, always ready to operate with a link to the TV screen.

You would need a very large pane of glass in the roof i think and it would get very dirty. Might be ok for visual work (maybe) but probably best to aim for a setup outside.

cheers
frank

[acropolite (Phil)]

Originally Posted by frank

The biggest problem (aside from the issues associated with additional glass the limited photons will need to travel through) would be the issue of how very dirty the roof/glass surface would get exposed to the element and this would without doubt adversely affect your viewing experience.

I doubt that it would be as much problem as turbulence generated from heat stored in the roofspace and escaping from the house at night. I think you'll find that the amount of air movement generated over your house roof would be a significant factor, at least until (and if) the house attains equalibrium with the oustide air.

[Phil]

I used to have a 10" in the roof what i used was a 1mx1m sunroof that slide off. Work very well. Dont live in that house anymore.
Phil

[Gazgaz (Gary)]

Thanks for your thoughts

Anyone on the sunshine coast QLD that is known to be good at advising on this sort of thing?

I was going to have a roof washer installed on an automatic daily cycle to wash the roof window (a bit like the people do out in the bush fire areas)

but perhaps an electric roof over the balcony is a better idea

but then I have to move the telescope in and out of the weather

no room on the rest of the property as it is a small block

Do I have to bolt the telescope down to make it track with the computer?? Would seem likely

[Ric]

Hi Gary, I think you would find that looking through glass with a scope would show up all the distortions in the glass. You just have to look through a window to see them and a 10"-12" scope would no doubt amplify these distortions.

Cheers

[Wavytone]

Originally Posted by Gazgaz

...I am wandering about having a glass roof of some sort that I can have the scope raised up to and then control and view remotely by computer and watch on the plasma.

The glass will degrade the image quality to the point its unusable, even with a smaller scope (60mm) the effects are easily seen.

The only viable solution is a roof that opens, or rolls off in some way to expose the scope, there have been many innovative designs. Basically do NOT use a dome - this screams "expensive gear inside, please rob me". Best to use a roof design that is as architecturally unobtrusive as possible. For example a sliding section that looks the same as the house main (fixed) roof, but runs on rails that are cleverly disguised as part of a pergola over a patio.

However... putting a scope in a house is often less than ideal because of the thermals it causes, which may disrupt your seeing. For example concrete/brick walls/paths that get full sun from midday through the afternoon will soak up heat on a hot day, and cause a thermal rising all night. In winter most people heat houses, and there is usually hot air leaking out all over the place - starting with a flue or chimney.

Personally I'd adapt a garage or garden shed. in an era when 802.11 wireless networking is everywhere you could avoid dragging cables across the garden by make the scope solar powered.

[AlexN]

Agreed. a small shed outisde with a roll off roof housing the scope on its mount, and a laptop there to control it... To make everything stream quickly from the observatory to the computer inside then to the TV screen, your best bet would be to lay a CAT6 or CAT5e cable, and run a 1000mbit network lead between the inside and outside computers...

The setup would basically be as follows
Scope+Mount -> laptop - ethernet - indoor pc - tv screen.

You could use the indoor PC to log into the laptop and control it via RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) in the RDP window, you would then open the planetarium software of your choice, and connect it to the mount. Then, open up the program for your video astronomy camera. All this would be happening on live on your plasma. Use the planetarium software to point your scope at the target. it will slew the scope to that point, and then simply start recording through the camera... If you used something like a Gstar-EX or a Mallincam you could have the galaxy or nebula of your choice, on the plasma screen within 5 ~ 10 seconds of starting the record... providing you had an automated roof (which I've been working on designing something if you're interested in having a look) you could push a button to open the roof, use a relay switch to power up the mount etc.. It could all be done remotely, and maybe 10 minutes between opening the roof, and having an image on the plasma.. Provided it was all setup right, .. Obviously, you cant remotely remove dustcaps from the scopes.. so that would require user input, however, if the scope was on a fork mount, and parked pointing the scope straight down (which I think the meade LX200's do (up to 10", Maybe the 12" too) and the celestron 9.25/11/14" do also, then you might get a way with not having the dust caps on the scope... you will need to clean the corrector plate a bit in that case...

Im starting to rant/ think out aloud... However its a very interesting plan, and I'd be very interested to hear in which direction you want to go... If you require any assistance setting up the computer side of things, and getting it all to work dont hesitate to ask.

I use the same RDP setup to do my planetary imaging at home... I sit inside at my 52" LCD and leave the laptop at the scope.. Control everything from inside..

Alex.