Situated in the New Forest @ Lat: 50.884031, Lon: -1.456774

The Haven Observatory

The Haven Observatory is housed in a 7ft Sirius Dome supplied by Pulsar Optical. It was installed in the autumn of 2008 and replaced a hand built hexagon structure made from OSB board an 2x2 timber framing. It houses my primary instrument - a Celestron Nexstar 11 GPS

The dome base rests on a concrete base 6" thick, dug out and laid by hand:-)

Power is run to the dome via a heavy duty, frost proof extension cable from a log cabin at the other side of the garden. Originally everything was powered from a Power Tank.

 The original ‘dome’ was constructed in 2004. The walls of the original structure were 5ft high and alloed me to get the scope almost horizontal. The roof rotated on 6 castors mounted on a double thickness 8ft wide ring of OSB, and rest on another double thickness ring mounted on the top of the hexagonal base.

All components were coated in 3 coats wood preservative and then 2 coats water repellent. The roof additionally is felted.

The roof has an opening 27" wide in two parts - a horizontal part at the top, which opens past the vertical, and a sloping piece. They can be removed separately if needed.

Both structures have  survived 90mph winds and temps as low as -14C. The Sirius dome has also survived being surrounded by a garden flood nearly 6" deep at one point. The carpet never even got wet!

You can see from the pics  that my site is arboreally challenged.

 The 9ft hedge and (~50ft) conifer block the north east - not too bad as that is where the sky glow from Southampton is at its worst. The oak tree is due east and the other tree is due south. Believe it or not the dome is placed to maximise the amount of sky I can access.

Just means I have to wait longer in the evenings to see anything that rising.