I’ve been chastised for waiting for photos to update the observatory status. Since commentary alone is acceptable, we proceed.
Integration of the end-of-motion sensors on the shutter went well. The shutter consists of two telescoping fiberglass sections. Rare earth magnets are attached to the leading edge of one and the trailing edge of the other. When those magnets are in proximity to magnetically actuated switches mounted on the dome, power is cut to the driving motor. Adjustment consisted of moving the switches to stop the dome’s motion at the appropriate places.
All the exterior trim has been painted. The earlier picture of the observatory shows the trim still raw wood. The last exterior work will be caulking all the seams.
A piece of countertop has been temporarily installed in the control room to provide a work surface. It won’t be permanently installed until the control room is finished and that won’t occur until I have determined final arrangement of the AC electrical outlets and switches and I still need to install all the DC wiring.
The dome room has been painted. I put that off since I was fighting several places where a small amount of rain was leaking in. The last rain we had showed one small leak remained. I applied some more sealant, but it hasn’t rained since so I don’t know if I was successful or not. I couldn’t wait any longer so I went ahead with the interior paint.
The telescope pier was installed and leveled. This is the first of the astronomical equipment to be moved in. A plywood template was provided with the pier to locate the mounting bolts. Actually there were two templates, since I set two different sets of mounting bolts. If I ever need to change the type of mount, the pier might need to be moved to keep the mount center-of-rotation in the center of the dome. Since there is 5500 lbs. of concrete in the pier footing, I only wanted to pour it one time. The pier dropped right over the mounting bolts without any fuss and leveling only took about a half-hour.