AN OBSERVATORY FOR THE GARDEN

No, Sheal, calling it a "left" ascension wouldn't be right, the right right ascension is right
"Term: right ascension
The stars on the celestial sphere are like cities on the globe. Cities are located on the globe using latitude and longitude. Longitude says how far the city is east or west along the Earth's equator; latitude says how far a city is north or south of the Earth's equator.
Right ascension (RA) is like longitude. It locates where a star is along the celestial equator. The zero point of longitude has been chosen to be where the line straight down from the Greenwich Observatory in England meets the equator. The zero point for right ascension is the vernal equinox. To find the right ascension of a star follow an hour circle "straight down" from the star to the celestial equator. The angle from the vernal equinox eastward to the foot of that hour circle is the star's right ascension.

There is one oddity in right ascension: the unit used to report the angle. Right ascensions are always recorded in terms of hours, minutes, and seconds. One hour of right ascension (1h) is 15°. Since 24x15°=360°, there are 24h of right ascension around the celestial equator. The reason for this oddity is that the celestial sphere makes one full rotation (24h of RA) in one day (24 hours of time). Thus the celestial sphere advances about 1h of RA in an hour of time."


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I think I understand all that

 

Just in case anyone is wonder what a vernal equinox is

"the time when the sun crosses the plane of the earth's equator, making night and day of approximately equal length all over the earth and occurring about March 21(vernal equinox or spring equinox) and September22 (autumnal equinox)"

 

I'm the same, Sheal I have to read a thing several times to get my head around it. I read my astronomy books repeatedly and keep finding bits that I skipped over and didn't read properly. If you look up at the skies at night in wonder, [and then wonder what's out there], you're an astronomer!!

 

I just usually wonder why I'm looking up there

 

Glad to see you've made a start and you've done well to pick such a good contractor, the cobbles look much better than a concrete ring. What's your timescale for the build and when do you expect to first use it?

 

Always risky if there's Sea Gulls or Pigeons overhead

 

Hi John, well, hopefully the contractor will be back tomorrow to add the top course of cobbles onto the first, cut a trench into the patio for laying the armoured cables to the rear of the garage, bore a hole through so that I can push the armoured cables in and then make good. We'll have to wait about a week before he lays visqueen in the circle and the cement is poured in, then another 5 to 7 days for it to cure, then another 28 days before I can apply sealer.........so say 6 weeks for all that.
The lead time for the delivery of the Pulsar Dome is 10, possibly 8, weeks so that takes us up to the last week of October or the first week of November before it's installed. Before it's installed I will lay an additional layer of visqueen over the base so that they can installed the Dome base on top of that. Then I'll trim around the outside of the Dome base so that is it's sitting on the visqueen giving me a damp proof floor.
I have to paint the inside matt black, lay a 25mm rubber tile floor inside, connect up the 3 armoured cables inside and fix the 3 RCD double sockets for power to the telescope mount, roof rotation, LED lighting etc. Install two high decibel security alarms......and then make a mug of tea. So, depending on how long it takes me to make that mug of tea, I reckon it will be in the 2nd week of November before it's fully operational. I'll be keeping up the pic diary throughout

 

That's not too long Armandii, I'm looking forward to see how your project goes.

 

Thanks John, it's been 18 months in the making if you take into account the research, deciding which type of Observatory, where it would finally go, drawing up different plans, deciding how many power points I would need, etc........so I reckon you're right. I've got nearly all the bits and pieces for fitting it out and powering it up. I can use my scope on the concrete base before the Dome arrives to give me a feel of it all.

 

The things you do for family, Sheal!!