Overview
Hi Everyone,
This was a major project to take on but important for an automated observatory. After I finished building my observatory (Blue Ridge Observatory), I decided to make it fully autonomous and automated. That means when going to bed and allowing the automation to control things while your sleeping!!! This also means closing the roof and parking the telescope. Yes, I had a lot of sleepless nights trusting the automation whether or not it would park the telescope 1st then close the roof so not to hit the telescope. After careful thought I decided recently to modify the front roof gable so the roof would clear both telescopes no matter what position they are in.
Moral here, build the walls high enough to clear the telescopes at the beginning of construction and save yourself 4 (8 hour) days of work to fix it later!!
Dave Collings – ERAS Web Master/Secretary/ALCOR
Project Details
Lots of climbing up and down the ladder!
Wood needed, 2 x 4’s , 2 X 8’s, 2″ & 3″ deck screws, 6 ft ladder, and a whole lot of time!
20 V Portable Drill, Chop Saw, and Jig Saw helped with all the cutting.
Garage door seal for the outside new front wall.
Inside seal around the new wall to keep bugs out when roof is closed.
