My Skyshed Pod
June 2010, I have replaced my temporary observing tent at Malvazinky Observatory, Prague, Czech Republic with a Skyshed Pod. This Pod is to house a 10" Aries Maksutov-Cassegrain and Astro-Physics 900GTO German Equatorial Mount - finally a dream coming true!
Skyshed Pod at Malvazinky Observatory, dome closed.
Skyshed Pod is a 2.4m diameter observatory made of high density, non toxic, UV resistant polyethilene. It is supplied in a relatively compact 4 boxed package, thus it can be easily transported. The standard Skyshed Pod I have consists of four dome quadrants and six panels, weighting between 15 and 50 pounds each. I have assembled it all by myself with the only exception that my wife helped me to raise dome quadrants and set them onto the panel's wheels.
The Skyshed Pod features a space ship style door with a lock. Any potential openings in the door and the dome itself are fitted with supplied rubber gaskets to prevent water leaks. I run the power cable through the door, however I think about a more elegant solution to deploy later on.
Skyshed Pod inside, with Aries 10" MCT and AP 900GTO GEM, notebook table and small Ikea Vitamin chair.
My 10" catadioptic fits inside well with the dew shield removed. My bet would be that Skyshed Pod would handle up to 14" catadioptics. The remaining room is tight, although perfectly enough for me, considering all this beauty is right few meters away from my bedroom and the kitchen.
Overview of the Kosire valley in Prague 5, Czech Repubic. FWHM of 1.8" is easily achievable during low jet streams, although I haven't invested much time into seeing analysis yet.
Dome open, telescope at the AP park position #2
The dome consist of two parts - primary and secondary. The secondary dome slides under the primary revelaling a huge sky area. Although I would like to notice that it would take to move the telescope off-center to observe zenith. The Skyshed Pod dome rotates 360 degrees.
My Skyshed Pod is mounted on the terrace floor, so it is non-intrusive. The proximity of my observatory to the apartment allows me to run USB cables via 5m extenders and move the notebook indoors. I foresee this will be a great feature during cold nights. The dome has wheels attached in the horizontal plane, so it helps to withstand strong winds I have at my site.
Link to the Skyshed Pod website: