Horizontal Heavens Observatory "...From  A Galaxy Far, Far Away"
Clear Sky Chart  

This page was last updated on 10/08/14.

The Observatory Project -- Inside the Dome

More Information: 

Horizontal Heavens Light Pollution Map in Texas

Dome Interior *includes metal pier construction and dome control system

Observatory Plans

Observatory Concrete Construction

Elevated Building Construction

HD-10 Dome Construction

Light Polluting Neighbor

Back To The Observatory Project

(Below) Newest German Equatorial Pier, and the materials for building the pier to hold my new Mountain Instruments MI-250 mount.  Pier pipe is 85" tall, 8.5" OD and 8.0"ID. The pipe will be cut down to 50" plus the 1/2" of plate for 50.5" Pier height.  Plate is 1/2" thick and this piece weighs in at 233lb!  There is enough 1/2in plate here to complete at least three and possibly 4 additional pier bases.  Again, Larry Dickinson is my astro-welder extraordinaire, as he built/welded all of my metal piers to-date.  In the dome, this pier is too high for normal visual viewing without a ladder, but the high pier allows much better movement within the dome without interfering with the equipment (essential when astro-imaging).

Meade LX200 Pier

(Below) Current "offset" pier on left and center.  Earlier, first pier is on right.  I needed the offset to place the fork-mounted scope in center of dome. 

NOTE:  Dome-centered concrete pier will allow for the eventual use of a German Equatorial Mount.  This was a design choice when I built the observatory.  The centered concrete pier meant that I had to adjust the design of the metal pier that mounts to it, when using the Meade Alt/Az on the Super Wedge.  The third image below shows an earlier version of the Meade-based pier with a built-in 30-degree DEC angle.  The only reason that that did not work for me is because I forgot to factor in the location of the maximum dome shutter position.  The dome shutter blocked the sky at zenith.  If I had a roll-off roof this would not have been an issue, but since I have the dome, I had to have a second metal pier top built.  BTW, both top fit into the metal pier base, OR one could actually take one of them and bury in concrete.  Then you could have TWO permanent piers that are compatible with the Meade LX200 system.    

(Below) Metal Pier Construction, 3-20-2005.  Larry Dickinson has been busy welding away on Horizontal Heavens permanent pier.  Interesting configuration with sliding pier sleeves, allows for an adjustable height change of nearly 2 feet.  Early pier top on left, base center and CURRENT flat top pier for Super Wedge on right.