So I’ve been hesitant to post any pix of my observatory but have recently joined a group and had to put some on my profile to share so figured I guess I’ll share with everyone. I’ll give a bit of history behind it and then some details about the building itself along with the foundation.

Construction: I built my 10’ x 15’  observatory in 1999 and it has been an outstanding asset for me in so many ways. It started out as just a visual observatory and when I poured the foundation I put in a separated 6” thick 3x3 pad with the standard 3” thick floors. (I wish I would have gone 4x4 now) I installed a pier that I built with schedule 40 - 10” tubing that was welded/mounted on a 3/4” thick by 24” round hot roll base that I built myself. The rail system that takes the roof on & off the building was designed and constructed by me as well. Cast iron V casters are attached to the underside frame of the roof which rolls this 1800lbs mass smooth as silk. It is manual and I literally use a garden rake to hook on a rafter and pull it off and on. The observatory has gone thru 3 major overhauls which included a 24” high elevated floor to accommodate dobsonian observations and testing in a business I owned back in the mid 2000’s called DBA Astronomy Products. Eventually that floor ended up several years later being pulled out and back to visual observations and now setup mainly for imaging.

History: As mentioned before I built this for visual observation. I was heavily into double star observations and at one point had cataloged over 3500 double stars. In the early 2000’s (Before DBA Astronomy) I was involved in a double star measures program thru a publication called the Double Star Observer (Ron Tanguay: founder) that was ran by Dr Brian Mason of the US Navel Observatory. I have taken a total of 938 individual measures of PA and Sep that was published in the DSO and documented in the USNO. Penmitlaw observatory has also been a teaching platform for a couple of locally based astronomy professors. We helped a physics major student measure the redshift of 2 quasars which she ended up doing so well she was asked to do a speech on how she did it and ultimately passed with flying colors.Penmitlaw observatory has been visited by some prestigious astronomy professors. 2 local ones and one not so local. Joe Bruessow of SVSU, Kevin Dehne, of Delta College and Mr Norbert Vance of EMU’s Sherzer Observatory, all of which I’m proud to call my friend.

Current Instrument: Like many of us we buy try and sell equipment and over the years I’ve accumulated many instruments. For whatever reason I tend to like the Newtonian design and thats what I have currently as my main imaging instrument. A 10” f/5 newt on a CGE Pro mount that has been rebuilt mechanically by myself and converted over to OnStep with the help of a couple of people/friends. The mount, cameras and other accessories are accessed in the 4x8 semi insulated control room which utilizes a 40” HD TV to monitor and keep things working smoothly. The post in the back of the observatory sticking up 24” above the roof is a weather station that monitors wind speed temp, and many other things and is sent to an app on my phone via WiFi.

Instrument Update 1/7/22: I just acquired a 12” f4 newt astrograph which I just finished installing on my mount. I’m very excited to start working with it! Now I just need some clear skies 😊 the instrument can be seen here: https://www.astrobin.com/82ovk7/D/

This is far from a “state of the art” observatory but its gotten me thru difficult times in my life and continues to be something I’m proud of and am happy to share with anyone willing to listen. 

My background: 38yr journeyman tool and die maker.

Thanks for looking!