Contractors
The Land
Site Plan
The House
Main Floor
Basement
Observatory
Family Home Page
We are interested in backyard astronomy, and the land is located in an area of fairly dark skies. Plus, it is large enough to allow clearing about ¾ acre to build an observatory with a 30° horizon. Our current observatory is squeezed into a quarter-acre clearing, and the surrounding tall trees severely limit the view.
During construction of the new house, the general contractor is using a portion of the observatory area to burn the trees removed during clearing. This photo shows the burn pile and the future observatory site. It's hard to believe that this area will be completely clear in a few weeks.
The new observatory will be named Hundred Oaks Observatory for obvious reasons.
Mike, Louise, and daughter Miranda marked trees to be removed from the observatory area. Mike sighted through a theodolite set to 30° to identify the too-tall trees, then Louise and Miranda sprayed orange marking paint on them.
Here is the Clear Sky Chart for the new location.
This is an example of our astronomy photography. Click here to see other images and the former observatory and equipment.
|