Move-in Day!

Yesterday was a big day at the observatory: the 14 inch scope finally moved in! An easy way to move the scope in would have been to have removed a wall panel (a great idea from the contributors at the POD newsgroup), but because the POD is on uneven ground, wall assembly was more difficult than on a flat surface. Rather than take the walls apart, we lifted the OTA and forks over the walls of the observatory and installed it on the wedge. It was a pretty tough job to lift the heavy and awkward scope over the wall and to get it on the wedge in a fairly narrow space, but we succeeded.

The scope is about 10 inches south of center, which will hopefully allow a little more zenith access when needed. I still have to level it on the uneven ground; due to some site restrictions and other considerations, the scope is tripod mounted rather than on a pier.

The amazing thing is that, even with this big scope installed, there is still plenty of room in the pod. The following pix show the scope in-situ, and give a good idea of just how much room there is in the POD. As you can see, my workstation, which is to the west of the scope, has plenty of space and allows easy access directly to the scope. Although my run-off shed in the county (10'x12') had  lot of room, I certainly don't feel at all constricted by the POD. This little observatory has lots of usable space, is watertight, and is the perfect home for even a large scope like the 14 inch.