24.06.2022 The Shirl Observatory 3 Early progress:

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  Friday 24th. Yesterday I opened the shutters on the big green dome for the first time in months. Then I could remove a lot of wood and packaging materials. The wood went into the greenhouse. [Which I had to tidy first] The packaging materials, from the dome and the ground floor of the observatory, went to the recycling yard. 

 Both "buildings" had been used as handy dumps to hide bulky things out of sight. I carefully flattened every box but the load was still twice the height of the trailer body. Which itself, is the size of a full sheet of plywood.

 The big dome is now accessible on foot. The ground floor of the observatory now clear behind the big stepladder. For many years we had been saving the boxes from every single item we bought. 

 Just in case something needed returning under guarantee. It all accumulated and nothing ever needed to be returned anyway. Workbenches, lawnmowers and other tools have huge boxes! Smaller items were nested inside some of them. Out of sight. Out of mind. It was a lot of cardboard!

 Now it has all gone I can move more freely. I can also start to remove the octagon's external wall panels within the enlarged observatory. These had been left in place for strength as I worked on the larger building and the new, much larger dome,  I also continued to use the original observatory as intended. Which remained unchanged within the larger footprint of the new building. 

 The original, plywood dome was only 3m/10' in diameter. The new dome is 4.3m Ø.  The octagon was actually much smaller than its covering dome. Simply due to having fewer, flat sides. The larger dome will be mounted on a 14-sided building. The greater number of shorter sides will follow a true circle far more accurately. Giving even more room internally.

 Within the original dome I would often find the telescopes trapped against the inside of the base ring. I could not fit a dewshield to the 7" refractor because they would hit the dome ribs. 

 I could not mount my 10" f/8 reflector either. All due to the lack of clearance. The new dome's base ring will easily clear any telescope I presently own by a meter of more. I have no plans for anything longer. 

11.00 78F. I have added some images captured this morning. It is already hot and windy. The seeing is mediocre and the telescopes being blown about. I had better get on with something more practical!

13.00 It is getting too hot for me out of doors at 80F. Particularly in direct sunshine. Lunch time.

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