Telescope Reviews: ExploraDome and POD Observatories

That concurs with my experience with the WHITE ED. The one thing I want to stress through is that the GREEN one at home gets quite a bit warmer in direct sun. Some of the temps over the summer were like 17 degrees warmer at the OTA level. If it was 90 outside it was 107 inside. The color has a lot to do with it so someone thinking of a green or blue (don’t know about red?) ED should be aware of this.

I also think it worth adding a link to the thread I did when I got my first ED. It details the condition of the dome at arrival as well as the construction process better than what I did in the review. If the link doesn’t work, search for the “ED construction” thread.

http://www.cloudynights.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=0&Board=Observatory&Number=1669088&fpart=&PHPSESSID=9aa309cef03c1d4f5e736d5817831d99

I don’t know if the POD vendor has gotten his questions he had to Chris or not but there are a couple I addressed to him in PMs and felt they should be a part of the review feedback.

Apparently there was some confusion about how long it takes to construct a POD or ExploraDome. If it wasn’t clear in the review, there is no doubt both products can be assembled well inside of a day. My assembly took a couple of days because I was in no hurry, had never done it before and I wanted to do things right. I said it takes a couple of weeks to get done ‘noodling around’ with refinements, by that I meant carpeting, lighting, electrical, adjusting the wheels, adding wall insulation. I’m sure the same is true of most POD owners, lights, carpet, solar fans etc.

Another issue he brought up was a picture caption where I said, “SHMBO said the dome has to be invisible and cost nothing” and he wondered if that meant I got a free dome.

That was a a long standing joke from the beginning as I was looking for a dome. “What colors do you have? Does it come in camouflage?”.

No, I am not affiliated in any way with either vendor. I paid full price for the first dome and did receive a discount on the second one. I bought the second one because I could not get a trailer in to pick up the first one with where I had to build it. Dan at Polydome knew I wanted a portable and offered a deal on the second one knowing it would be a good product exposure as well as helping out a customer. I have no doubt that he would offer the same thing to anyone wanting a portable unit that had purchased a previous one.

The other issue he had was about Chris’s statement that in portability “the ED is the champ”, since neither Chris or I have experience transporting a POD.

This is true, we don’t have experience but to date, in spite of inquiries, neither of us have seen/heard/read of anyone transporting a POD to a star party other than beta testers or the vendor.

I think it would be a good idea to start a thread and linking it to this review on portables in general and especially POD if there is field experience with transporting one.

As it stands though, the statistics I gave on transporting the ED are accurate. If anyone would like to follow my thread picking it up at the vendor and taking it to the Nebraska Star Party, here it is.

http://www.cloudynights.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/1731016/page/0/view/collapsed/sb/5/o/all/fpart/1/vc/1

I don’t think that there are a lot of people taking PODs or EDs on the road. This is not a negative reflection on either product but I think reflects the marketing interest of the buyers; most desire a permanent installation.

I have been highly interested for years at finding a portable observatory for remote imaging. I’ve bought or made other products with varying success but nothing that worked well. Then there was the POD and ED.

As I said in the review, porting an observatory is not a trivial operation. You need to be able to transport three things; one (or more) observers, observing equipment and the observatory. To be able to transport a dome and the observing/imaging equipment pretty much dictates either a trailer or a second vehicle and driver.

From a portability standpoint the new product Chris and I are evaluating, the AstroGazer from Astrogizmos may be superior to both POD and ED in this regard. It is much larger in terms of interior space (10 food diameter) compared to the round building or a straight POD, offers more “head room” (8.5 feet) yet compared to the two is very compact in terms of transport size (three bags) and weight (~140 lbs). Setup time with two people is roughly an hour.

The real advantage I see with this product is that you can get two observers and large gear into one vehicle. Although I haven’t tried it yet, I don’t see why the AstroGazer couldn’t even be rooftop portable.

As far as a rough comparison to the portable ED; the ED is a one person setup that takes 10 minutes but requires a trailer. The AG is best assembled with two people and would take longer but is larger (interior) and much easier (packed) to transport. The only other major difference is that the AG is not ‘lockable’ so the site has to be secure or attended as far as leaving equipment goes.

Chris hasn’t seen the AG yet but we are getting together tomorrow, so perhaps he can weigh in on his thoughts of comparing the POD and AG.

If interested in my initial impressions of the product you can follow this thread.

http://www.cloudynights.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=0&Board=Observatory&Number=1892486&fpart=&PHPSESSID=9aa309cef03c1d4f5e736d5817831d99

Having a portable observatory is wonderful. Even if most PODs and ED’s are permanent mounts, once people discover how wonderful a dome is may want to consider having one of these AstroGazers in a closet for star parties or remote sites.