For a long time I wanted to have my own observatory for my telescope. It’s a 10″ Newtonian Reflector and with the mount it weighs a ton and takes about 40 minutes to set up… by which time in the UK, the clouds have rolled in again! So I set about looking for an observatory that gave me enough space to show visitors the views through the ‘scope. A dome would have been fine, but didn’t offer the best space option. The solution was a roll-off roof observatory, but the only company in the UK that used to make them, had stopped manufacturing, so I set about designing and sourcing my own.
I’d had an old brick garage in the back garden that we had demolished, and this left a convenient concrete base for the observatory. I managed to find a company in the Netherlands that did kit-built ‘log cabin’ style sheds, and a local garden structure company that were prepared to modify the standard shed so the roof could be rolled off.
The result can be seen in the timelapse video above, and gives me an eight foot square observatory that can be ready in a matter of moments!
Examples of the photos I have managed to take from the new set-up can be seen in the Gallery. In addition, as the concrete base from the old garage was 16′ by 8′, the area that the roof rolls off over made an ideal decking area to enjoy the British sunshine!
A friend told us about a field of poppies being grown to the west of Basingstoke. Having been cooped up for ten weeks (apart from essential shopping and local walks), we decided to venture over there in the afternoon to see the field for ourselves. What a sight! The field was cordoned off (it is a crop grown for harvesting, after all) but it was possible to walk up the field on two sides to view the flowers.