Observatory build

In May of 2014 I bought a home on a lake North of Kent Ohio. In addition to changing the roof line I am adding a second story observatory on the South side of the house. The observatory is being built to the 11' 6" by 11' 6" roll off roof plans from Back Yard Observatories.

Here are before and after home drawings done by Fidei Architecture who are the architects and general contractors.

View to West with observatory on left

3' by 3' by 3' pier foundation poured

General construction

Observatory deck view East

Observatory deck view North. Stair landing on right (East) side of observatory.

Observatory deck view West. Yes, the house is about 20' from the lake.

Column partially built

Column top plate

Roll-off-roof rollers

Progress in observatory. Column done, walls up, holes in house wall for roll-off-roof rails.

View South, Folding wall section on floor at right. Top plate L bolts embedded in column concrete.

Linak DL2 height adjustable column for pier

Aluminum plates ready to be drilled for pier and mount

Progress on house

Roof on

Pier plate fitted on top of column

Column, Linak DL2, iOptron mini-pier, iOptron iEQ45Pro, clouds.

Roll-off-roof latch, 1 of 4

First light. I used extension cords as there is no power. I brought in a folding chair and table.

California Nebula imaged in Ha. 30 x 240s images captured by a modified Canon T3i through a William Optics Z80 II with a ATR8 reducer/flatener and Astronomik Ha filter carried on an iEQ45Pro. Half of the images had to be discarded due to clouds drifting in.