Mini Backyard Observatory

[charles-felder]

Finally bit the bullet and built a mini observatory for my C9.25 in my yard in Plantersville. I use a laptop at the scope and connect from my desktop in the house using Teamviewer. Getting lazy in my old age. Less than $1200.00 invested. Instead of a pier. I drilled 3 1" holes in the floor where the tripod makes contact.Then I drove 3 pieces of 3/4" x 4 ' long galvanized pipe into the ground through the holes leaving about an inch sticking up above the floor of the observatory. The tripod sits on the pipe. It's as sold as a pier at a fraction of the cost. The pipe does not touch the floor so vibration is not a problem. See attached pictures.
Here's the observatory.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9bCiUAE8Vw

[edward-fraini]

Very inventive! How are the sky's in that area?

Ed

[charles-felder]

Getting worse every month. I can still see the milky way but the skyglow from the south is getting pretty bad. When I moved here 30 years ago, you could see M31 naked eye. Not any more.

[rene-gedaly]

What a terrific idea. Is it still working as you'd hoped? Sorry to know even Plantersville is getting all built up.

[rene-gedaly]

Meant to add thanks for posting the youtube video. What a neat design on the roll off, too.

[charles-felder]

Even after all the flooding (we got 18" of rain in 24 hours) the observatory stayed dry. Legs are still level. So I'm pretty happy with it. Now we need some clear nights and a few less mosquitoes.