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I already know a few friends who are operating telescopes from a long distance remotely, and I always was of the opinion that this is not the right way to experience astronomy. Due to the very bad sky condition at home in Belgium I was on the lookout for a dark place in France for a couple of years because I wanted to buy a second home, build an observatory there and make the trip to that place to photograph under almost perfect conditions. But after a while I through away this idea because of the high prices for the properties in Southern-France and also due to work and family commitments. With my transportable equipment (TMB152 mounted on a 10Micron GM2000QCI and SBig STL11000) I visited France about five times a year with friends and during such a trip I met a French guy who owns a large property at an almost perfect spot in Southern-France. Alain, the landlord, suggested me to place a dome on his land and the idea of building a remote observatory was born. Together with Daniel Marquardt, a German friend with whom I already enjoyed a few astro- vacations in the past, we worked out the plans and the final decision of building two domes side by side was made very soon after that. Six months passed by and after a lot of worries and hard labor we are proud what we have accomplished and now I should say; "LET THE FUN BEGIN..."
I also want to say a special thanks to Alain Cagossy, Adrian and Herman Vanaken for their great help ! |
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Making plans for our future remote observatories. |
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Drawing and measurements for the concrete floor, pillar and positioning for the pipes into the concrete. (electrical wiring) |
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Panoramic view of the old village and swimming-pool on the camping. |
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Leveling the ground with big machines and digging the holes for the pier foundation. |
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Positioning the concrete tubes as mould for the pier construction. |
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Preparing and filling the mould for the basic floor with concrete. |
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One basic concrete floor is ready, one to do yet. |
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The two floors are ready and have to dry-out for several days before further work can go on. |
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Herman, our big help, is mounting the wooden boards to the concrete floor. This will be the support for our wooden floor. |
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The support wooden boards fully assembled and the steel pillar bolted at its position. |
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The big box from TECHNICAL INNOVATION arrived and we're looking at the content: our two PRO-DOMES. |
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The first basic wall is connected to the concrete floor, also the small door is positioned on place. |
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Herman and Daniel are connecting two quadrants of the dome first. |
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The dome is fully assembled, all the equipment is installed and ready to use. |
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| View at the power supply and DDW hardware of the PRO-DOME. |
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| View of the windlass and mechanism to open the shutter. |
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| Our large and special designed raid-systems by our friend Adrian B. |
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| The inside IP-camera and inside light. |
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| Pollux: the dome computer and on top of it the epower switches. |
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| Looking at the back of Pollux with all the wiring going underneath the floor. |
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| Internet antenna/modem from our local provider Numéo. |
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| Our instruments outside: BOLDWOOD cloudsensor, Meteo station and outside IP camera. |
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| A more detailed view of my dome and instrument content. Let the fun begin... |
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