Dome trouble

Well, we had trouble, my friend! During our April 4, 2009 public night, the shutter began acting up. It was difficult to open for the night and was nearly impossible to close (see previous post)! College carpenters built up a scaffold inside the dome early in May and determined that the rollers that carry the shutter had derailed -- nominally the rollers move along an iron bar at the top of the opening easing operation. The craftsmen lifted the shutter back on to its tracks and lubricated the wheels. With the scaffold in place the telescope could not be moved so all use of the Observatory was suspended during the balance of April and through May. While the scaffolding was still in place, over the late-May Memorial Day weekend, I replaced the pull ropes that are used to manually open and close the shutter. I have no idea how old the cotton rope was; I replaced it with a tough poly braded rope. The shutter works better than it has in years though close examination of the condition of its wooden components left us with worries.

May offered a number of clear nights which was a big change from an otherwise very cloudy spring season. Unfortunately needing to be fresh for work and a nasty late-May head cold kept me from taking advantage of the clear night skies. Hopefully this will be a good year for me and I have hopes of using both the Observatory and my private telescope(s) more frequently than in recent years.

Photo: Crammed inside the Observatory dome is a large scaffold used by workers to repair the troublesome dome shutter. The hundred-year-old sliding wooden cover had become derailed. Taking advantage of the presence of the sturdy apparatus, I replaced operating ropes and inspected the upper reaches of the dome and shutter ... it wasn't pretty!