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My father loved to have a project to work on, it was what helped him reach the good old age of 92. When I said to him one day, that I fancied buying a telescope and taking up astronomy, he immediately saw this as an opportunity for a interest we could share together.
With in that month he had bought a Celestron Next-star 4 telescope and had decided what his next project should be—— building an observatory.
After looking on the web together for inspiration, we set about planning how it should be constructed.
My Father affectionately known as Ted by all who new him.
Picture to the right shows the sections of 15mm thick plywood hoops to form the main rotating bearings for the dome to be built upon. Dad calculated the arcs and cut out all the pieces, which were many; a long arduous task over many weeks with a jigsaw and plenty of patience which he had an abundance of.
Pictured to the right, is the concrete base lade by: from left to right, Richard, my bother in law; Dad & myself.
My Father was 92 at this time and yet still had a hand in mixing the concrete!
The base is eight feet in diameter with conduits sunken in for routing a power cable to telescope.
Left- Gazebo bought to house observatory while construction took place over a very wet summer. Another one of Dads really good ideas, without which we could not have progressed very far that very wet summer.
Dad takes a welcome drink of squash on one of the rare hot days of the summer when it did not rain.
In these pictures you can see how the large 8 feet diameter hoops are fitted with casters to form a large rotating bearing for the roof dome.
Ribs and 7mm plywood petals are glued and pinned in place on top of the hoops. 16 petal like sections plus centre section complete the dome.
Dad feeling very pleased with the progress.
Dome complete apart from centre sliding shutters.
7mm plywood side sheets are bent around the posts of the base.
Dad, Myself, Linda my sister and her husband Richard.
All the family had a share in helping dad with this his final project.
My son Jonathan gives me a hand painting the all most completed observatory.
The picture below shows Dads house and the completed 8 foot diameter observatory to the right. There is ample floor space for four or five observers to comfortably stand around the telescope out of the cold.
Dad was only able to enjoy the result of all that hard work for one year, as it proved to be the final project my father would undertake. Dad passed away in the spring of the following year (2009) and is sadly missed by family and friends. However all who had a part to play in helping dad with this final project are so glad to have had the opportunity to spend what was real quality time with him.
Moving the Observatory to a new location
Moving the Observatory to a new location
Sadly my Fathers house was to be sold after his death, which meant the observatory was in danger of being destroyed should the new occupants not want it.
After all my Fathers and family’s hard work, I felt this could not be allowed to happen.
In order to save it I decided to move it over to my garden in Westbury. To accomplish this it was necessary to divide the roof into two parts and the base into quoters. This meant putting in some extra timbers where the sides were to be cut through, however this was easily accomplished.
With the use of a large box trailer loaned form a close friend, all parts were relocated to my garden, where it could be re-assembled on the base that I had got prepared.
Area in the garden cleared ready for the observatory to be located. As this time it was going to have a wooden floor, a steal post was made to sink deep in the ground, imbedded in concrete.
To this base a steal pillar was made in order to mount the telescope. By this means the telescope would not be effected by any vibration from walking around it on the wooden floor.
The re-assembled observatory in the corner of the garden, serving as a summer location for my radio shack.
Vertical antenna and support for one end of the full sized G5RV antenna can be seen behind.
For a short time in the summer of 2015 I setup the old FT101ZD in the observatory and tried its out as a radio shack for summer use. However I had to contend with the invasion of some very large field spiders who also thought it would be a nice location to inhabit.
The Spiders won! and I moved the gear back into the garage for a short time before moving into the warmth of the bungalow.
Observatory as of June 2019
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