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Perhaps you are already a stargazer using a small telescope you bring out to your back yard on clear nights. Perhaps you have a larger telescope that is mounted outside and protected from inclement weather. Perhaps you just dream of someday owning a fancy telescope set-up and turning it skyward to view the neighboring planets and moons of the Solar System or the stars that wink at you from millions of miles away. Whether you might want to undertake building an over-the-top dome observatory yourself or not, you are sure to enjoy this informative tale by Gordon Rogers, told with humor and humility, of his torturous but ultimately rewarding experience with building for himself, attached to his own home, a fancy and sophisticated dome observatory, just for the pleasure of sky watching on beautiful nights (of which there are far too few in England!). Read about all the thinking and planning that went into this venture, and the options considered and rejected. Read about the choices and mistakes made along the way. Finally, read and discover the joys of sky watching using state-of-the-art equipment, and share in the author's frustrations and triumphs as he completed this project of a lifetime.
Why astronomy?.- Trepid Beginnings.- Battle Stations!.- Town and Country Planning.- Construction.- Computers.- Telescopes.- Cameras.- Wrinkles Galore.- User Groups.- Photographic Results.- Public Reaction.- People in Astronomy.- Conclusion.
Gordon Rogers lives in England. He is a qualified building surveyor, a Fellow of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors as well as a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society. His beautiful deep-sky images regularly appear in the astronomical magazines. He contributed a chapter to More Small Observatories, by Sir Patrick Moore (Springer, 2002). He lives in what is probably the only traditional English part-thatched cottage to feature an observatory dome!
