The doghouse pictured here would not be practical for an altazimuth scope, since this configuration requires access to all sides of the telescope or pier. More than once I opted to step outside the building and lean over the wall to view through the scope!) (That being said, at times my 11-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain's eyepiece came uncomfortably close to the side walls. With this arrangement the observer stays relatively stationary as the scope is pointed around the sky. Nevertheless, a shelter as tiny as my 4-foot-wide doghouse works only for compact Cassegrain-type telescopes, since they can be set up in polar-aligned mode on a pier at one end of the narrow observatory with the building's long axis oriented on a north-south line. It also had enough room for a desktop computer and monitor, and thus is a viable design for those interesting in CCD imaging. But its dimensions can be altered to suit your needs.Īlthough the doghouse's footprint was only 4 by 8 feet, it could accomodate both me and the array of books, atlases, and accessories that I typically take under the stars.

I spent hundreds of happy hours in the doghouse from its completion in early December 1982 until spring 1989, when my main observatory finally saw first light.Īdmittedly, the doghouse was rather cozy for a polar-aligned 11-inch Celestron Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope and an observer. The doghouse proved so enjoyable that it slowed work on the main observatory by several years. The real surprise, however, was how practical the tiny building turned out to be. Waters documented his 'cheap wooden Telescope-house.' A pier destined for my main observatory was temporarily mounted in my backyard, and a small roll-off-roof shelter for it seemed like an easy project - one that would quell my growing desire to get started actually building something.ĭoghouse construction consumed three weekends and a few evenings in between. I was well into planning a much larger home observatory when I came across a 1921 book called Astronomical Photography for Amateurs. Like many of my best ideas, credit for this one belongs elsewhere. Waters, this photograph inspired the doghouse's design and construction. Taken from a 1921 astrophotography book by H. Small, cheap, easy to build, and remarkably well suited to modern Schmidt- and Maksutov-Cassegrain telescopes, the doghouse has generated so many inquiries that we've decided to document its construction in some detail.

But our readers have shown a disproportionate amount of interest in my tiny 'doghouse' home observatory, which was first mentioned in a single paragraph in our December 1999 issue. We've presented a wide range of observatory styles in Sky & Telescope over the years (and several appear on ). The chance to observe at a moment's notice - when weather and freedom from personal commitments are in sync - makes a home observatory in your backyard especially attractive. Much of this growth, I believe, is rooted in today's hectic lifestyles. You too can quickly build a basic telescope shelter.īackyard observatories have always been a part of amateur astronomy, but they seem to have had a surge in popularity during the last decade. Dennis di Cicco's 'doghouse' observatory progressed from an idea to a working observatory in less than three weeks during the fall of 1982.

Telescope furniture outdoor