30.04.2021 AR12818-20 are leaving.

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Friday 30th 46F, Bright but milky sky. 

I was playing with cross-axis building geometry while half asleep. Lot's of interesting ideas to consider. I really want to limit the space it takes up on the ground floor. Not because I plan to play field sports down there. Just to avoid accidental collisions between myself and the structure. Particularly when it is dark. Or when I am thinking hard about something else. What my wife calls "child proofing" my environment. 

09.15. I started imaging. Very milky sky with thin, high cloud. The complex spot system AR12818-20 is now very close to the SW limb. Not that my image remotely does it justice thanks to the poor seeing conditions. I'll keep trying and hope for better things.

09.46. Added a 1.6x GPC for slightly better result. Lots of cloud now added to the milky, white sky. Thermal agitation and wobbling. The former is rapid or higher frequency image displacement. Wobbling is much slower than the latter but the image is much more distorted laterally. Clouds are crossing the sun's image now.

Trying a 2x GPC. Much softer. Smaller field of view. Dimmer.

10.00 Too cloudy to continue.

Went back to fixing cladding on the observatory level at the back. Only one left to do, at the back by lunch time. In retrospect I should, probably, have done the upper panels first for easier access with the ladders. The ladders can't be in the same place as the panel being fitted.

A light shower at 12.45 and a much heavier one before 6pm. The "tan" on the lower panels is obvious here. In contrast to the freshly exposed, upper panels from the dwindling stack.

The last, upper cladding sheet was applied over extra, made to measure, cross braces. I want the connection between old and new buildings to be really solid here. The two eastern posts of the octagon will be remaining. 

The last, lower panel at the back will follow tomorrow. Leaving the new door and two, lower panels are still left to do at the front. I have been using the original, double doors for access and security. The octagon has remained intact inside the larger footprint. The new dome needs to be in place. Before the old and weathered, octagon panels can be recycled to decorate the insides of the larger observatory.

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