My Observatory

My home observatory is a roll-off roof observatory in my back yard.

The building looks a bit like an unusual garden shed. One half has a normal pitched roof, while the other has a sloped roof. The hint that there is something unusual about this shed it the set of rails which extend over the sloped roof on either side.

These rails support the barn door tracking upon which the pitched roof moves. When observing, the pitched roof is rolled out over the sloped roof to expose the telescope to the sky.

In astronomy, you want to view as low in the south as possible, and as such the observatory is situated such that the pitched roof rolls north to south, with the pitched roof parked in the northernmost position when the observatory is open.

A portion of the southern wall can tip out to allow a little more visibility to the south.

My location is not ideal for an observatory. There are significant tree blockages to the East, and to the South. These have been getting worse over the years as the trees have grown. The site has a good view to the north; and Polaris is visible from the observatory but nothing below Polaris. This simply means that I have to wait for objects below Polaris to move above Polaris later in the year. I have clears significant trees from the West side of the observatory and as such have a good view in that direction.

Although I am somewhat blocked by trees, I prefer to image near the zenith, so the tree blockage is not too much a problem. In fact, the trees do stop many breezes from shaking the telescope, so there is some benefit there..