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Astronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY 33

This is the story of my personal obser-vatory, a project spawned from a vision tobuild a roll-off observatory at my astron-omy club’s dark-sky site. What started as“The Roll-Off Project” with a forkmounted LX200 telescope, ended up in-stead as a SkyShed POD with a GermanEquatorial mount. As the story unfolds,you may learn firsthand about severalheretofore-unknown secrets of the SkyShedPOD and hopefully gain a better appreci-ation of the requirements for observatoryconstruction and the trade-space compro-mises required for telescopes of variousfocal lengths.

Start With the End in MindBefore embarking on any project, es-

pecially a technical construction effort, oneof the best practices is to precisely definethe requirement, or said another way, whatyou want the system to accomplish. My de-sired end state for my first observatory wasto permanently mount my ten-inch LX200along with a second telescope that wouldenable deep-sky narrow-field and wide-field imaging and science.

Site Selection: The PadIn 2003, I joined the Texas Astronom-

ical Society of Dallas (TAS). Besides a cadreof over 500 members and a history thatdates back more than 85 years, the crown

jewel of TAS is its 40-acre dark-sky site insoutheastern Oklahoma. When a group ofvisionary TAS leaders purchased the prop-erty a quarter century ago, they set aside asignificant quantity of land for members tolease and develop their own observatories.The concept was and remains today, to usethe lease fees to offset the cost of operatingthe dark-sky site.

Knowing fully that I wanted to build afacility that would support at least my 10-inch Meade LX200 GPS telescope andallow me and one of my children to sleepinside after observing sessions, I leased oneof the club’s 20-foot by 20-foot pads. Site selectioncriteria included elevation,location on the site andproximity to the site’s WiFiaccess point. The onlyavailable site meeting mycriteria was an uncom-pleted, abandoned roll-offshed on a 4-inch thickconcrete slab with a 31-inch diameter central holefor a pier.

The constructionproject actually com-menced as a demolitionproject as I had to removethe unusable but substan-tial structure that was al-

ready bolted to the site pad. Throughouttime, fathers and daughters have bonded inmany ways. My daughter, AstroGirl, had ablast with power tools and banging thingsas we cut, ripped, and otherwise destroyedthe unfinished structure to make room forthe future roll-off. At the beginning of theday it looked like someone’s old, overgrownshed.

The Line of TruthImmediately after demolition, as part

of site preparation, I laid a true-north line.As a matter of full disclosure, I spent nearly

Evolution of an Observatory Project From Roll-Off and Fork Mount

to SkyShed POD and GEM

Figure 1. Original Roll-Off Observatory Layout

By Max Corneau

a year in Washington DC where, in myspare time, I observed and led tours at theU. S. Naval Observatory (USNO) for thegreatest public affairs officer in the U. S.Navy, Mr. Geoff Chester. Geoff is a friendand the great grandson of a previous Su-perintendent of the USNO, Rear AdmiralColby Chester, so he is truly at home at theUSNO. The point to this digression is thatat USNO I learned to appreciate the practical nature of astronomy and the vari-ous tools used to measure time, distance,and location to extremely high degrees ofaccuracy.

After some deliberation I conceived ofusing the Solar Transit method to deter-mine the local true north line, referred to asthe “line of truth” for the remainder of thisstory. Simplicity is beautiful when it worksand laying the line of truth was a beautifulthing.

With the help of friend, HubbleJim,and AstroGirl, we erected a ladder on thesouth side of my slab, propped it at a 60 de-gree angle using 2x4s, hung a plumb bobfrom one of the upper ladder rungs, and ad-justed everything so the shadow fell acrossthe pier hole. HubbleJim admitted laterthat he thought I was a bit “touched” untilhe saw the chalk line appear. My daughterably manned the chalk line as I dialed mycell phone to the speed dial entry labeled“Time Hack” on my cell phone. The num-ber, (202)762-1401, accesses the USNOmaster clock time. I laid the phone downon the concrete as AstroGirl aligned thechalk to the shadow. When I announced“snap” at the precise moment of solar tran-sit, she snapped the chalk line beneath theshadow of the line of truth. We later re-placed the chalk line with outstretchedtwine and spray painted it in place. The re-sulting line of truth is dead-on!

Designing the Roll-OffTo this day, the page on my website de-

voted to my observatory is titled “Roll-OffProject” because a roll-off observatory wasmy initial vision. After reviewing several de-signs, I decided to purchase the plans to

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Figure 2. Demolishing the Old Structure Day One

Figure 3. AstroDad and AstroGirl After Demolishing the Old Structure

build a SkyShed out of wood and make itlook very nice with the planter boxes andshutter options. Walking around the darksite one day with a long-time TAS member,a single word profoundly changed the di-rection of this project.

This old salt who owns an observatoryhimself, casually suggested that the SkyShedplans supported a proven observatory thatwould allow me to build out of metal as eas-ily as wood. I stopped dead in my tracks –actually in the tall, itchy grass – and askedwhy anyone should consider metal con-struction. His one word answer spoke vol-umes then and continues to repeat itswisdom today. “Critters” he said. Presently,Barry’s observatory is out of commission,awaiting repairs because the critters ate

through the telescope control wiring in themain control room.

CrittersThe 100-minute drive from the TAS

dark site to my home near Dallas allowsfor considerable contemplation. On thisparticular ride home, one word kept echo-ing through my head: “Critters.” Afterlearning that the price of metal construc-tion exceeded my budget, I began to ques-tion the entire project. Nearly on a lark, Ifollowed a link on the SkyShed page totheir SkyShed POD (POD is the acronymfor Personal Observatory Dome) site. Thesystems engineer in me approached thisproject as a requirements-driven effortfrom day one.



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Image 4. HubbleJim and AstroGirl after Laying the Line of Truth



Soon I found that the largest SkyShedPOD, the five-bay XL-5 option, wouldsupport all of the major requirements ofsize, system compatibility, and sleeping.Indeed, the POD stirred lots of interest inthe amateur community due to claims of

evolutionary design, low cost, and high-quality, proven material. After “runningthe numbers,” I announced to my wifethat my plans had changed and that theSkyShed POD was the way to go. Theunique qualities of the High-Density

Polyethylene (HDPE) construction of thePOD answered my new concerns regard-ing critter invasions, plus offered other pe-culiar benefits in this application, as youwill soon see.

Enter the PODThough not one to fear spending

money on astronomy gear, I undertook aday of research and sent out a flurry of in-quiries to POD owners before orderingmy own SkyShed POD XL-5. In theprocess of ordering, I recognized that thevery large shipment far exceeded what myminvan could transport and ran into abump in the road.

Enter my pal and fellow TAS mem-ber HubbleJim. HubbleJim actually spenta couple decades managing systems and programs on the Hubble Space Telescopefor the prime contractor. After a happy career, he retired from the city life and, ina true case of life imitating art in the formof the Green Acres sitcom of the 1960s,Jim bought a farm. One of the added

Image 5. Pier Hole Substructure with Conduit and "Pier Roots" Sticking Straight Up

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benefits of HubbleJim’s farm is that it islocated less than two miles from our club’sdark site.

After a quick phone call, HubbleJimagreed to have his farm be the shippingdestination for the POD. Little did Iknow that Mrs. HubbleJim would be theone to download the boxes from the UPStruck because Jim had been called backout of retirement to Colorado to fix aproblem with the WFPC-3. I make it apoint to still bow in the presence of thisfine lady and am eternally grateful to herfor receiving my POD shipment.

The POD’s on-schedule arrival in-duced a nearly biblical flood of rain insoutheast Oklahoma. Due to work sched-ules, the boxes sat on HubbleJim’s trailerfor several weeks getting soaked andbreaking down. Ultimately, the dome lostsome of its shape due to improper han-dling on my part as it sat on the trailer incollapsed boxes. Wayne Parker, owner ofSkyShed, assured me that the inherentmemory characteristics of the POD’sHDPE material would cause the dome toreturn to its original shape and he was ab-solutely correct. As soon as the Oklahomasunshine hit the dome in earnest, it didexactly that.

Digging Holes, Rebar, Concrete, the Pier and Plate

The concrete pad I leased from theclub was in great condition and alreadyhad a 31-inch diameter central hole toground that facilitated digging a deep holein which to build an isolated pier. Ratherthan spend $400-$500 on a metal pierthat would attach to the ground, I builtthe pier in three sections: (1) lower mush-room and “stool legs,” (2) mid-mushroomand the concrete pier, and (3) the upperor finishing surface.

Here’s some advice: when diggingsuch holes, find the biggest, best powertools available and avail yourself of thetechnology. I rented a 13-horsepower hy-draulic auger with 12-inch and 4-inch bitsand had a heyday chumming through

the thick alluvial clay that dominatessoutheast Oklahoma. My intent was tobuild the inverted mushroom four feet below ground, but I ran into a pre-ex-isting concrete base that someone obvi-ously had already placed as a would-bepier base.

In response, I dug around the baseand then dug four “stool legs” at 60-de-

gree angles to the base down to a depth offour feet. The rebar infrastructure tiedinto the existing pier base-plate and then I tied that into each of the stool legswith 3/8-inch rebar. At this point, I filled the base with concrete and had fourrebar “roots” sticking straight up thatwould form the base of the rebar in the pier.



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Image 6. The POD Field, HubbleJim's Trailer and Our Instructional Viewing Theater (My Minivan)

Putting It All Together on aCold Day

Besides being a “Good-News Story,”my POD adventure is also somewhat of acomical adventure. Picture a couple ofrocket scientists all geared up and ready toassemble a new high-tech observatory thefirst week of December, 2007. Computersimulations were used to place the PODprecisely with respect to the pier – liter-ally no detail was overlooked in assem-bling the POD.

Unfortunately, the rocket scientistsdidn’t have a hard copy of the assembly in-structions, nor did they have a compati-ble DVD player to view the ultrahigh-tech step-by-step assembly video.Fortunately for our comedy team, Astro-Dad’s minivan provided an onboardDVD player, so we could all huddle in thevan to figure out what to do next. In addition to HubbleJim, my pal Jordanwas invaluable with his fundamental wis-dom in helping assemble the POD on thiscold day.

All kidding aside, assembling thePOD is simple and straightforward. Fewtools are required, video instructions pro-vide “pointy-talkie” instructions, andthere’s really no heavy lifting required. Myonly remaining wish is that, rather thansaving his customers a few bucks by notprinting an instruction manual, Wayneand his folks provide an abbreviated set ofassembly instructions. Indeed, I’m toldthat Wayne and his team will soon bedoing just that and are already at work ona manual that integrates screen shots fromthe DVD with detailed text instructions.

LX200 in the POD: Shake Rattle and Roll

One week after assembling the POD,I hoisted my Meade 10-inch LX200 GPSonto the custom-built Milburn Pier tophead-plate that was bolted to the j-boltsnow part of the concrete pier. Ken Mil-burn builds some of the most solid andfinest quality hardware in the business andhe custom-built a matching head plate to

secure my Milburn Wedge to the pier.Fortunately, the head plate was absolutelylevel and equally as true to north. PerhapsI over-engineered the level and directionalaccuracies, because the Wedge has adjust-ments for error, but in my book, there isno such thing as too level or too true tonorth.

On December 16-17 the observatoryand scope saw first light. My goals weresimple: align, polar align, and drift align,and then lock it all down. Despite a bone-chilling 25-degree night, all the goals wereachieved and the scope was readied forimaging. Note in Image 7 that there ap-pears to be considerable fog in the picture.Actually, this phenomenon occurredshortly after I removed my gloves to shootthe picture, because my hands warmedthe surrounding air and produced a local-ized fog.

Like a fine lady in waiting, the PODsat patiently on the observing field inOklahoma until January 13-14, 2008,when I returned to spend my first night




imaging and sleeping in the POD. I sleptwell, but the imaging part left a lot to bedesired. This event foreshadowed the nextseveral months of “fighting the forks” ofmy LX200. Although the 10-inch modelis the size around which the entire LX200line was designed, the forks and long focallength are considerably less forgiving thanmy 600-mm refractor on a German Equa-torial mount.

After countless attempts at autoguid-ing, I coined the term “shake-rattle-roll”to describe the absolutely stochastic be-havior of guide stars in both my SBIGST2000 and PHD guide windows. Inshort order I began to notice the RA slip-ping occasionally. Armed with this pearlof wisdom, my assessment was that theRA-set worm gear had become loose andwas no longer in constant contact with thedrive gear. After an initial and successfulattempt at tightening the worm, myMeade guide and I managed to slam theLX200 so hard against the hard stop thatit snapped it and short-circuited the mainboard. That was the final straw that whenbroken, caused me to look seriously atmounting my LX200 on a GEM.

Secrets of the PODBefore taking you to the final chapter

of this story, it’s most appropriate to sharewith you what I call “The Secrets of thePOD.” What kind of secrets could possi-bly be sequestered in this equipment? Inno particular order, here are some I’ve dis-covered.

Have you ever seen those sound col-lector dishes the networks use at sportingevents that enable broadcasters to eaves-drop on huddles or on-field action? Thoselittle parabolas are at most 24-inches andseem to work pretty well. Try being at thefocus of a 7.5-foot half-dome sound col-lector such as this.

Not only is this sound collector per-fectly aligned for ground line of sight col-lection, but it rotates easily through360-degrees of motion. I now know whohas been saying what about me and my

“playground equipment.” Ha! Conversely,as one of my pals pointed out, the domecreates an excellent “band shell” that re-flects the cosmic sounds produced fromwithin by my Sirius satellite radio. Oncold, windy nights, or just plain-old clear,

windy nights, I simply rotate the dome toblock the half of the sky from which thewind is driving and life is good.

Perhaps the most striking fact fromthe dominion of PODs is a function ofgeometric perspective. To the person,

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Image 7. First Light and 25 Degrees during the Second Week of December

everyone who has ever come into thePOD or even visited from the outside hasremarked, “It’s so much bigger inside thanit looks from outside!” And yes, they usu-ally make this an exclamatory statement. Ithought about this fact and it makes per-fect logical sense that most people sensethis same thing. You see, from outside thePOD, one can only see a maximum ofthree POD bays. However, from inside,one is surrounded by every bay and all thefree space they provide. Hence, the PODis “so much bigger” when viewed from in-side.

Here’s another quirky secret: The

plastic material used in the POD is an un-favorable medium for the notorious Okla-homa wasps to attach a nest. As the TASObservatory Steward, I’m constantly bat-tling new wasp nests during spring andsummer at our site in Oklahoma. How-ever, I have yet to see even a hint of a waspor hornet’s nest attached to my POD.Others have reported that the HDPE sur-face of the POD is “self-cleaning,” inrecognition that, as with wasp-nest an-chors, dust and debris do not adhere wellto it and any that do are washed away byoccasional rain.

Yet another secret: Many amateur ob-

servatories, especially those far away fromtheir urban dwelling operators, sufferfrom moisture and mildew issues withequipment and optics. Mildew can de-stroy precision optical systems. But, thePOD does not suffer from moisture issuesbecause it “breathes” from around thebase of the dome through a 1.5-inch gapbetween the dome and base.

The unique design of the POD offersstill more benefits. On really cold nights,I fire up a little space heater and aim heatat my feet and legs without impacting im-aging. Finally, the POD maintains an ex-ceedingly high “cool-factor” thatembodies the best of an open sky roll-offand the astro-coolness of a dome.

The Decision Point: Knives,Spoons, and No Forks

As stated earlier, when I removed theLX200 from the POD my intent was totighten up the RA worm and then reinstallthe entire system. Unfortunately, we didmore damage than repair, so once again,my initial vision was corrected.

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Image 8. The POD Dome as Sound Collector, Band Shell, Anti-Wasp Barrier and More...

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form. Brief analysis indicated that, meetingmy own requirements for such a rig, wouldnecessitate an extensive list of adapters, bal-ancing, and mount improvements.

EQ-6 Pro Mount Mate and Adapterfrom Telescope Stability Systems - Earlierin this story I commented about the highquality of Ken Milburn’s work. Tim Ray,owner of Telescope Stability Systems (TSS)also produces incredibly high-qualityequipment to improve or adapt telescopemount systems. Most of Tim’s products re-late to the Orion Sirius/Atlas line or theEQ-5/6 line. For my needs, Tim producedhis first powder coated white Mount MateAdapter that attaches to the Milburn piertop plate. Additionally, Tim sold me anidentically matched Mount Mate that at-taches to the EQ-6 Pro and then secures tothe Mount Mate Adapter.

ADM Saddle and Losmandy Dovetail- Tim Ray notes that the EQ-6/Atlasmounts generally have three weak areas: (1)the tripod to head attachment, (2) thecounterweight shaft, and (3) the saddle

plate. Attaching my mount to the pier topplate using Tim’s Mount Mate system mit-igated one of these weaknesses. To eliminatethe second, I substituted the “stock” saddleplate with an ADM saddle plate. Installingthis unit required me to fit the underside ofmy 10-inch LX200 OTA with a Losmandydovetail plate. The newly integrated systemis absolutely rock solid.

Shooting for the Moon with a Focuser- Unfortunately, removing the OTA fromthe LX200 forks eliminated the ability touse the Meade electronic focuser. Althoughthe 10-inch LX200 does not suffer from ex-tremes of either mirror flop or image shift,the single-speed “mirror jack screw” ishardly an ideal solution for astrophotogra-phy. My choice for a new focuser after as-sessing price, performance, availability, andof course aesthetic appeal, was a MoonlightCS-2. Although this class of focuser is notinexpensive, the actions are so smooth thatone is apt to gratuitously focus or rotate theimage.

Pier Plate Conversion - The first time I

hoisted this new EQ-6, LX200, Moonlightsystem enabled by Tim Ray’s Mount Mate,ADM and Losmandy devices, it was late ona Friday night immediately following oneof the TAS general meetings. Since I’m theVice President, responsible for programs,it’s somewhat incumbent upon me to actu-ally show up for the program portion of themeeting.

On nights like October 31, when wehosted Drs. Bob Jedicke and Will Burgettfrom Pan-STARRS in Hawaii, I even hadto show up for dinner beforehand. AfterBob’s wonderful program on Pan-STARRS’s NEO detection mission, I boltedfrom the University of Texas at Dallas cam-pus with the telescope system in my car andput it all together at the POD. The integra-tion effort began at about 10:30 p.m., andthe only issue was that, as I suspected, theMilburn plate attachment holes did notmatch all the TSS Mount Mate holes. How-ever I matched two of three holes and wasable to carefully fire up the scope, polar alignand run through a variety of go-tos.

Image 10. LX200 10-inch OTA with Losmandy Dovetail, ADM Saddle on the EQ-6, and Moonlight Focuser during Transitional Period

Image 9. Mount Mate Adapter Secured to Milburn Pier TopPlate that Attaches to the EQ-6 Mount Mate. The LosmandyDovetail and ADM Saddle Plate Are Also Integral to the Mount.



The next morning, I got an early startwith every intention of driving to Shawnee,OK, to pick up a new portable EQ mountfor home use. Unfortunately, the night be-fore on the ride into the dark site, I musthave hit a hazard and had a tire blow out.Since everything indeed happens for a rea-son, in my quest for a tire shop, I found anoutstanding metal shop just down the roadfrom our dark site and had a new hole boredthrough the Milburn pier top plate to per-fectly match the EQ-6 to its new piermount.

Achieving the Desired End State

For several months I searched for alightweight, refractor of 60 mm or so ofaperture to piggyback on the LX200. This scope would serve double duty asboth a guide scope and a wide-field imager. Given these requirements, my ultimate choice was an Astro-Tech AT-66ED refractor with a dual-speed, rotatingfocuser.

One of the smartest features of theAT-66 setup is the ring set sold by Astronomics. The rings mount to the standard LX200 finder scope attachmentpoints without modification and are rock-solid. The 400-mm focal length AT-66 will be a very forgiving instrumentfor astrophotography. The true test of howwell the mount works emerged from theLX200. I’m pleased with the first galacticimage from the LX200 shown in Image 11. For a full resolution version,please see http://www.geocities.com/astrodad32/M81_LRGB30ea_ddp_proc_ano.jpg.

Applying requirements to achieve adesired objective works only if one abidesby the appropriate restrictions and bound-ary conditions. Most of us are restricted bycost and a variety of other factors. Themost critical restriction facing this systemin its final evolution is weight. Mostmount manufacturers hesitate to quantifya maximum load for astrophotographypurposes. This is because factors such as

Image 11. M81 at f/42 Using the LX200 with a Takahashi 0.67 Reducer/Flattener



Image 12. Various Fields of View with the Instruments in My POD

balance, focal length, type of guiding ap-plied, and moments of inertia all varywidely and greatly impact any mount’s op-erational capabilities. My self-imposedmaximum load on the EQ-6 is 40 poundsand the whole rig, including my SBIGST2000XM with CFW-8, weighs almostexactly that.

Extending the M81 example, let’s ex-amine the instruments in the POD andtheir field of view. Once again, a picture isworth a thousand words and Image 12sums up the practical field of view quitewell. Consider the canonical galaxy group-ing of M81 and M82, so inviting in com-mon 12-inch and larger short focal lengthNewtonian telescopes. The system in myPOD makes handy work of either the pairin wide-field or a detailed, individualgalactic examination.

My first observatory project has beensuccessful to this point as it is both aes-thetically pleasing and achieves the objec-tives I originally prescribed. I’m smilingall the way…



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