Barking Dog Observatory

Yes, that's right. BDO is the name of my new observatory. There are enough noisy dogs in my neighborhood to fill the observatory, so that's the name. Until Karren makes me change it.

Here is a pic I shot two nights ago. Globular cluster M3 in Canes Venatici, on the border of Bootes. It's a bright one that can be seen easily with binoculars, although it will be so tiny that you will mistake it for a star. I shot it with the new Hyperstar 3, C11 Edge, Nikon D5300, on top of the CGEM DX mount. No guiding, no calibration frames, no remote shutter release, nuthin' but me and the rig. Turned out okay. Slight trailing. 30 second exposure X 17 frames at ISO 400. Easy-peasy.

Now I’m a POD Person!

 After waiting and planning for years on how to modify our shed to become an observatory, I posted a want ad for a used Skyshed POD. The next day I received a call from Dr Dan, an amateur astronomer and imager in New Mexico. “You won’t want to come all the way to Albuquerque for one would you?” You bet! Three equipment bays and a white cover made the deal even sweeter. Dan was even flexible with our pick up scheduling, since we both had irons in the fire for at least a month. I think if I had known that diesel fuel would be almost 6 dollars a gallon in a month I might have had reservations about waiting!

Karren and I left town on a Wednesday, intending to spend a 5 day weekend traveling to New Mexico for a visit with Dan and his lovely wife. When we arrived on Thursday they graciously took us out to eat and we had a great time getting to know each other. We spent that night in our slide-in camper at Dan’s place. 

Up and at ‘em! With Dan’s help we had the POD disassembled and packed into our trailer by 11AM. We decided it may make sense to hit the road a day early so we would have time at home on Sunday to recover. BTW, the hole in one of the bays is for an A/C window unit, which Dan gave to us at no cost. That means Free99 folks! Dan is a very generous guy… plays a mean pipe organ too.

  

After four days of constant driving and stops for gold-plated diesel fuel we made it home with no apparent damage to the POD. Since it had been living in the middle of a horse corral/arena it needed a good washing to rid it of dust. NM is in the middle of a deep drought and it is so dry even the cactus are drooping. The interior of the POD was clean as a whistle so washing the exterior was on tap for Sunday after the morning maintenance work on our garden was done.

 

Getting the pieces dry in the sun was no problem and soon we had a temporary home prepared on our gravel parking pad in the backyard. It took a bit longer to figure out how to assemble the thing, especially since I had to split the dome into its four parts in order to lift it into place. (Hint: Get a third person or a second person of large stature to assist with this step of the assembly). Anyway, we got it together just in time to huddle inside while a brief sprinkle spanked us. Attaching the weatherstripping to the dome radius was not fun — this strip is attached up and over the top to the other side. It is best to attach the dome halves together and put the strips on BEFORE one attempts to situate the dome roofs. But I wanted it done NOW and we could only lift it in quarters. Lesson learned.

 

The intent is to build a deck to put the observatory on, but it will have to wait until I can source the materials and figure out the best layout. I want to have a pier for the mount inside, so that will be planted first, then the deck built around it, followed by the POD relocation. I initially thought our gravel location might be suitable, but it is just too high profile for the public to miss, and I don’t want to have any curious felons interested. With the additional height of the deck it will have virtually the same views and a protected location in the backyard. I will be installing a security camera inside just in case someone decides to try something stupid. Simplisafe makes one that combines camera, night vision, recording, motion detector, and siren, all wirelessly connected to our house system. I love our alarm system. I will be able to use the camera to monitor scope movement from inside the house while shooting pictures. You never know when a wild slew will manifest itself!

So that is the status of the long awaited observatory. I have to install a “Hypertuning” kit to my CGEM DX mount before permanent install, but that should only take a single weekend. I do know that I have to keep the scope OUT of the POD until it is ready on the deck, or else I may never finish things and get distracted shooting pictures. Gee, what a problem to have…

I’ll see you next time with the completed install. By the way, I’m thinking about calling it Barking Dogs Observatory for obvious reasons. Nampa is the city with the most barking dogs per capita in the world. Karren doesn’t like the name so we’ll see if it sticks. WOOF-WOOF!