Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
Tue, 06/30/2020 - 17:44
I watched the Bright Star Monitor Webinar this past Saturday...was very good. Saw images of the Texas site with the large condominium sheds. I was wondering if I could get some more information about that...construction, materials, estimated costs. I work for a small university in Texas...we may have the ability soon to build something soon.
Hi Michael,
The DSO buildings are commercially built from Backyard Observatories:
http://www.backyardobservatories.com/
You can check with Preston Starr for more details:
http://www.darkskyobservatory.com/index.html
The rolloff at Bill Stein's place, which has BSM_NM and APASS under its roof, is also a BYO product. Most of New Mexico Skies uses BYO. They pretty much have the commercial roll-off market cornered.
Skyshed has plans for some small rolloffs that might be useful:
http://www.skyshed.com/plans.html
Gary Walker has a neat "rollup" observatory that we are using for some BSM installations, such as BSM_Hamren and BSM_NH. It works extremely well for a single telescope, but would not be effective for a condominum arrangement.
Good luck with your plans!
Arne