14 replies to this topic

[Bobalford]

Has anyone moved a 3 meter(10ft) Observa-Dome? If so, what was you experience? I am looking at moving one about a 1000 miles. Any thoughts or  information will be welcome. Is this even possible. I have experience moving large mills and mill equipment, but this is a different.

Edited by Bobalford, 05 December 2024 - 11:43 AM.

[MHamburg]

I imagine it would be very expensive.

Michael

[brroberts]

I’m 600 miles from there.  I was in discussions, but when I said disassembly into UHaul, the owner said two pieces, crane, and wide load permit.  That’s expensive, and I walked away from it. If you break it down and reassemble it could be a deal.  If it’s wide load, add probably 4K for load, transport, unload over a 1000 miles. One nice thing is, ObservaDome is still willing to help with their old used domes.   That’s more support than you get from many manufacturers. 

[kathyastro]

I moved my Exploradome (10' square building) twice.  The first time, about 200 km; the second time, about 20 km.  Costs were about $5000 and $2500, respectively.

 

 

[Bobalford]

Had not considered moving it whole, only disassembling it. What about the floor? Did you have to build a floor or was it already on one that could be moved. Or did you maintain the integrity of the building some other way. Any details you can give me would help.

[Bobalford]

I’m 600 miles from there. I was in discussions, but when I said disassembly into UHaul, the owner said two pieces, crane, and wide load permit. That’s expensive, and I walked away from it. If you break it down and reassemble it could be a deal. If it’s wide load, add probably 4K for load, transport, unload over a 1000 miles. One nice thing is, ObservaDome is still willing to help with their old used domes. That’s more support than you get from many manufacturers.

[Bobalford]

What was the owners thinking on two pieces and not breaking it down into smaller pieces? I was thinking dividing both the building and dome into two or four pieces.

[kathyastro]

Had not considered moving it whole, only disassembling it. What about the floor? Did you have to build a floor or was it already on one that could be moved. Or did you maintain the integrity of the building some other way. Any details you can give me would help.

My building has a framed floor (2x6 joists, 3/4" plywood).  It stands freely on a pad, so it is relatively easy to pick it up and move it.  At just 10' wide, it needs "wide load" placards on the truck, but no special permits.

[brroberts]

The dome is fabricated to be split.  The shutter is the bulkiest part.  There is a post on here about refurbishing one of those domes.  As to the owner whole or in part, I’d figure it’s been long enough he’d probably go for pieces at this point.  I’ve moved on to a different dome. 
 

https://www.cloudyni...r-observa-dome/

[Astrola72]

I was hoping you'd reply, Kathy, having moved a dome twice. I didn't want to ask though. Thanks for adding your experience here.

 

Joe

[vsteblina]

I moved a 10 foot Home Dome about 150 miles.  It was simple to disassemble the dome and fit ALL the parts into two pickup trucks.  Took less than a couple of hours to take apart the dome.

 

A friend moved a Ash-Dome across the country and it was the same experience for him.  He put the Ash-Dome in a trailer.  He did take it apart.

 

I love roll-off roofs, but unless they are designed to "unbolt" the walls, etc it is much easier to move a dome. 

 

Not a fan of domes, but early in my career when I moved around a lot, I wish I had bought a dome at that time.

 

The problem with the dome is the walls and floor, but after I built a "bolt-together" roll-off roof I realized that I could have done the same thing for a dome.

[Bobalford]

I moved a 10 foot Home Dome about 150 miles.  It was simple to disassemble the dome and fit ALL the parts into two pickup trucks.  Took less than a couple of hours to take apart the dome.

 

A friend moved a Ash-Dome across the country and it was the same experience for him.  He put the Ash-Dome in a trailer.  He did take it apart.

 

I love roll-off roofs, but unless they are designed to "unbolt" the walls, etc it is much easier to move a dome. 

 

Not a fan of domes, but early in my career when I moved around a lot, I wish I had bought a dome at that time.

 

The problem with the dome is the walls and floor, but after I built a "bolt-together" roll-off roof I realized that I could have done the same thing for a dome.

I am not stuck on an Observa-Dome. 10 foot roof( dome or ROR) and 7 feet head room at the walls is the starting requirement. I am looking on the used market because at this point I am not sure how much value it is going to add to this wonderful hobby. The scope I use most has been hauled from Alaska to Florida and will continue to be. I have a bigger scope that was my Father-in-law's that is just to big to move around. Takes two of us to haul it out in the yard here in Maryland for a nights viewing. That will be the main resident of the observatory with the small scope being there some of the time.

 

I was interested in you experience with the water tightness of the Home Dome and second with you comment about the wall and floor of the dome being a problem

[vsteblina]

I owned the first generation Home Dome.  It was the one with teflon on the ring for rotation.  They later went to wheels.

 

Issues I had with it: 

 

The triple shutter would fall off at a fairly regular basis.  It was fairly simple to put it back together again, but frustrating since it happened a lot.  Once in a rare high wind event the shutter blew off completely and I got snow into the observatory.  The dome was at my second home, so having the shutter blow off was a serious issue.  I did quickly devise a simple rope system that secured the shutter to the dome.  It never blew off of that.

 

The dome was located in heavy snow country.  Which is one reason I bought the dome thinking it would shed snow better than a roll-off roof.  The snow load was such that the base rings bulged and the dome started sticking on rotation.  That is really awful in a dome, since you end up moving the dome a LOT.

 

I didn't have an issue with water coming through the dome, except for the shutter issue.  I did have a problem with water coming in on the floor.

 

The door was fine for younger folks, but getting under the door at an older age would be more difficult.

 

If your handy, I would probably build square walls for the dome.  I used three sets of dome rings.  For a dome, the base and particularly the base ring for the dome needs to be perfectly level.  That is more difficult to achieve.  If you end up using the dome rings I would reinforce them with curved wood insets.

 

I placed the bottom of the base rings on a deck and tried sealing it against water infiltration.  That failed.  You really need to have an overlap system that sheds water out of the area.

 

I called Home Dome and tried to get information on upgrading the dome, and was told that generation of domes were crap.  They had no interest in helping me out.  I did buy the assembly manual for $25 and quickly determined that it was not going to be easy to "fix" the dome with my skill set.  I ended up selling it to a guy that knew all about fiberglass and he thought he could fix it.

 

The advantages of the dome are that they are great in wind.  It is much warmer in a dome.  I had a 17.5 DOB inside the dome and it was nice for a large DOB.  You get plenty of headroom yet the base ring wall was only 3 feet high allowing me to look down to the horizon with the 17.5.  

 

Domes are great for large visual DOBS.  I have a roll-off roof that I prefer for viewing and imaging.  

 

My carpentry skills are pretty awful.  

 

My first observatory was a 8X8X5 bolt together box with a take-off roof like a shoebox.  Then a 10X16 roll-off, followed by a 10X10 roll-off and the Home Dome.

 

If I had to do it again, I would just kept building the 8X8X5 bolt together observatories.  Cheap. Quick and easy to build in one weekend. Easy to convert to a warm room or storage for telescopes.  The downside is ugly as sin so you probably want to hide them behind a fence.

Edited by vsteblina, 13 December 2024 - 09:03 PM.

[Bobalford]

All great information. What year was that dome manufactured so if I go that route, I can avoid them. There are a couple of early 2000s available.

[vsteblina]

It was an early model. 

 

It had teflon tape instead of wheels for rotation.  Stay away from those for sure. 

 

That is where are the problems radiated from!!!!  Particularly, after the snowfall squished it out of round.  

 

Pay careful attention to the cable system for the shutter as well.

 

Those are really the two points of concern.  Focus on them.