In 1962, in the third grade, I got a copy of Fred Hoyle's Frontiers of Astronomy; I read it numerous times, and knew then that I wanted to be an astronomer. Well, things didn't really work out that way, so things like large telescopes and mounts and observatory buildings were put on hold, pending a day when I could spend more of my time doing what I truly wanted to do -- sit under the stars with a telescope and photograph the incredible objects in the night sky.
At long last, 35 years later, the time for an observatory arrived. After a protracted search of the numerous places in the southwest desert that qualify as near, at, or in the middle of nowhere (so the sky will be nice and dark at night, that's why), but still within shouting distance of utility service, land was procured. What follows is a chronicle of the transformation of 40 acres of high desert into my vision of astronomical nirvana.
So, like Dorothy, we begin by putting one foot in front of another as we follow the treacherous road to The Emerald City (or at least an observatory with electricity and indoor plumbing :-).
Well, OK, so this isn't quite the Wizard's castle, but it serves the purpose:
Watch the roof roll in this short movie.
I was gifted with a whole stack of computer-room raised flooring,
which has been put to good use at the observatory.
Part of the floor has been cut out
and replaced with the raised flooring, so it will be easy to run
cables to the telescope piers. This will also provide enough room so
I can crawl underneath the floor as necessary; the raised floor is 27"
(69 cm) above the underlying concrete slab. Looks nice, huh?
Compare that with the way the floor looked just after we started cutting it up.
(Photo by Stephanie M. Friedrichsen)
The interior of the basement living quarters is essentially complete. Sadly, the planned darkroom has been sacrificed for a bedroom, for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the difficulty in running a darkroom on a septic tank system. But the bedroom is finished off now, and it is a nice place to sleep!
Upstairs, the observing level is in use (or at least it was until we started cutting up the floor to install the raised flooring). Some photography and CCD imaging has been accomplished as I figure out what custom adapters I need to purchase or have manufactured in order to put together my imaging trains.
Heating and cooling in the basement has proven problematic. On one hand, leaving the basement uninsulated has probably been a big help in the summertime; even with several computers running full-time, the temperature inside the sealed basement never rises about 81 Fahrenheit (27 Celsius). On the other hand, the heat pump works quite hard to heat the basement in the winter, and for some reason it gets confused when the basement is calling for heat with the outside temperature in the 70s or so in the spring.
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| Site | Well | Power | Septic |
| December, 1999 | January, 2000 | February, 2000 | March, 2000 |
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| RV | Basement | Observing |
| April, 2000 | May, 2000 | May, 2001 |
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Terry R. Friedrichsen
terry@mail.trf.sunquest.com