Following Walt’s first-time visit to the Riverside Telescope Maker’s Conference at Big Bear this weekend, the home observatory bug accompanied him on the drive home. Not having a decent backyard to accommodate a standard roll-off roof observatory and wanting to steer away from tearing up the lawn, flower beds and sprinkler system, it was decided that the best bet was to be on top of the backyard wall. A new “observatory patio” is born. A long ways to go. A great deal of the excavation work is extremely solid shale material, so there is a lot of pick work. Dynamite would really be great, but Walt’s wife would not like the consequences 🙂
