Barrys home made observatory

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Barry
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Barrys home made observatory

Post by Barry »

Hi all.
Most of this year I have been building an observatory at home to demonstrate to both myself and others at large, that one can build a real beauty on a very low budget. You hear of observatories that cost thousands of dollars....well mine has cost a grand total, including the forecast fibreglass to come, of one thousand, eight hundred dollars Australian.

How did I do this? With a lot of help from the Lord. By not being ashamed of recycling at its best. This means raiding industrial bins (with the industry's permission of course). Asking for things you see lying around. If you don't ask, you dont get. Sometimes you ask and you get a "No", but this is ok. I dont want to have this dome made with stolen parts.

There is a great deal more detail on my website, devoted to this project. Lots of instruction, tips, mistakes made and lessons learned. Plenty of photos along the way too.

I hope everyone who wants to give a similar project a go, will get something of use from my site. Its free and for you.

Heres the link, http://members.iinet.net.au/~armstead
If you have troubles, just search for "Barry's home-made observatory."

God Bless,

Barry. :)
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kayheem
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Location: Sennet Estate

Post by kayheem »

Hi Barry,

Welcome to Singastro! Good to have some input from down under!

Your dome looks great, but not very feasible for mere mortals in Singapre due to scarcity of land. If you do read the archives, there is a new condominium here in Singapore that has an observatory.

BTW, did the commissioning of the dome bring on any cloudy skies? :-)

Kay Heem
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kingkong
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Location: Borneo

Post by kingkong »

a nicely done geodesic dome! congratulation. for a while, i considered building one of those for my backyard but finally opted for a simple roll-off roof one.

i like your model probes too. you are really good with your hands. :-)

perhaps we can visit your dome when visiting australia...? to see the southern skies, and may be to debate the subject of god and science.... can't do it here. afaik the mods here don't take kindly to religion-related discussions. for or against.
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Barry
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Post by Barry »

Commissioning of the dome didnt really seem to affect the weather much. We are in the middle of a bad drought. Thats a bonus for astronomers, but not for the farmers I'm afraid. I would think that the skies in Singapore would not have much to offer, with the light pollution and all. How is it really?

Baz
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kingkong
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Post by kingkong »

my last trip to australia in june '06, i booked a night in one of the obs/farm there (near goulburn), and low & behold, the night i arrived, the 3-months long spell of drought ended! 15km from the farm me wife looked out the windows and proclaim she saw stars, the minute we stopped and i stepped out of the car, i saw jupiter only. by the time we finished unloading, it was completely clouded over and didn't let up for the next two days. so we visited the obs, had some good port, spun some yarns, took a photo standing next to the 20" dob and went to bed...
sorry for going off-topic, but i'm still bleeding inside after all these months... and you just reminded me of it... :cry:
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ariefm71
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Post by ariefm71 »

Magellan Observatory at Lake Bathurst, NSW?
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kingkong
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Post by kingkong »

ariefm71 wrote:Magellan Observatory at Lake Bathurst, NSW?
yup. you been there?
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Barry
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Post by Barry »

Well, I got the steel bent up and I've been head down, bum up all day. I'm feeling sore now.

Got my fibreglass too! I'll have to get the old man around tomorrow with the backhoe, so I can take the dome off, place it on the new ring and fibreglass the lot!!

Soooo excited!!!!

Baz

http://members.iinet.net.au/~a rmst...ort%20ring.htm
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Barry
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Post by Barry »

Well, today I got my flowcoat and applied it. The dome looks great now! I will post some pics on my site later this week if you want to have a look. heres the link, but I would wait until tuesday to have a look. I left my camera at work so Ill bring it home monday and take some pics for you all.

Baz :)
Robin Lee
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Post by Robin Lee »

That sounds great! I am going to make a home observatory, just big enough to fit 3 persons inside with a LX90 and a small table. Could you give me some suggestions?
Clear skies,
Robin.

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