Observatory

   

The site of the observatory. Central UK. N52:04 W01:16

 

I have been interested in astronomy for about 6 years. My first instrument was a home built  8" newtonian telescope. This telescope was located at a site about 3 miles from where I lived and I was unable to get to observe with it as often as I would of liked.  I sold it for a ridiculously low price and bought a Meade 10" LX200 around September 1996.  By April 1997 I had finished the construction of  simple run off roof observatory to house the LX200. It measures 7'x7' base with a 6' 6" high rear wall and 5' 6" front wall. 
2 runners are hinged to each facing corner to allow the roof to roll forwards. Setting up takes less than 5 minutes which means I can take full advantage of those infrequent clear nights!  I operate  the LX200 and ST7 remotely. The cable runs are over a distance of 27 meters.

September 1997 was when I took my first CCD image. The image of  M57 .  The most difficult part of remote ccd imaging is focusing. You only know when you 'had' good focus when it is too late  Arrrgh!  Focusing also takes up valuable imaging time. As a result, my last project  was to build a remotely operated focus mount for the ST7 camera with a digital position indicator.   Look at focuser for details.

When using the ST7 CCD camera or 35mm film I can now image the following field sizes.

Telescope	ST7 Field Arc min	ST7 Arc sec/ pixel	35mm field Degrees
LX200 @ f10	9 x 6	0.74	0.54 x 0.78
LX200 @ f6.3	14 x 9	1.17	0.86 x 1.24
Vixen @ f9	26 x 18	2.0	1.48 x 2.11
Vixen @ f6	41 x 28	2.35	2.35 x 3.51

The supports can be removed and the runners hinge back against the observatory sides walls.

This picture shows one of the rear inside rollers with the roof almost fully open. To close the roof it is simply pushed to its shut position. The roller arm assembly is then rotated anti-clockwise which lowers the roof. This allows the roof to completely over-hang the observatory sides, without any cut outs or gaps for the track / runners.