Astronomer Builds First Backyard Observatory in Titusville
“With the observatory I have electricity and have used this to set up white and red dimmer lights.” This system works more effectively than just a flashlight because he has just the right amount of light to see what he is doing with both hands free. Using dim red lights has little effect on constricting his pupils so as to improve night vision. But exposure to any bright-light source requires around 30 minutes in the dark to re-adapt to a moonless night.
“After building the observatory, I bought a German equatorial base, which is too heavy to carry to an observing site and requires some time to set up and align with polar north.” However, once aligned, the telescope does not require realignment every observing session. His observatory computer, connected to our home computer by an underground Ethernet cable, allowed him to control the telescope and its camera from inside, which helps on cold nights or with prolonged astrophotography exposures. In the near future, Dr. Lewis plans to build a larger telescope, which would require the fixed location that the observatory provides.
“The first issue one must deal with when building an observatory is what do you want it to do and what do you want it to look like.” Art wanted the observatory spacious enough so that several people could join him inside of it, but he did not want it to look like a typical observatory. “I wanted it to look as close as possible to an ordinary square shed.” He bought a book on building observatories, which had two styles of square observatories. One of them, small enough that the whole observatory rotated on two metal rings and the other, which had a roof that rolled off of the building but would not keep out light from passing cars. Due to the size of the observatory, Dr. Lewis could not have a whole building rotate; so only the roof and upper wall rotate. “Finding any examples in my book or on the Internet of a square observatory with a rotating roof was impossible.”
“For this reason I needed to come up with a new design.” He needed the structure to have a metal roof and vinyl siding, but the challenge included coming up with a design that would keep the rain and snow out and still allowing for the roof and upper wall to turn. Another challenge consisted of installing an 8 x 3 foot door on the roof, while keeping it waterproof and lightweight. While using art-editing software, Dr. Lewis came up with the design and helped him to measure the size of the various parts of the building.
Art also states, “I built the inside of the observatory of wood due to wood’s ability to absorb moisture in order to protect the equipment inside the observatory.” Also, wood does not retain heat like cement and metal. This fact benefits the astronomer especially in the summer after sunset. If the observatory’s air temperature increases above the surrounding air temperature, then heat waves rise from the ground and disturb your views of the night sky. He also chose metal roofing because of the metal’s ability to reflect the sun’s rays.
From May 2005 to December 2006, construction took about a year and a half to complete. Arthur built the backyard observatory with the help of family and close friends. Building the structure proved to be a major improvement in observing the sky in Titusville. “Finally, I wanted to show other Christians and non-Christians the ways in which the heavens declare the glory of God, and I believe the observatory is an effective way of doing this.”
