The first step was determining the best location on my property for the observatory. I found the best location which gave me a clear shot of Polaris above the trees to the north. The only problem was a 30 foot tall Corkscrew Willow that was eating up the sky.

So the decision was made, the tree must go.

On October 8th, 2005 Russ and Veronica from Skyshed came to my property and poured the pier footing for the telescope pier. They arrived early in the morning and got to work digging a hole in my beautiful lawn. We had a serious drought this year, so the ground was as hard as rock. Russ was having a hard time making progress with a shovel.

After watching Russ for a while, I started getting tired, so I suggested renting a machine to dig the hole. You've got to have machines at a construction site :)

Soon there was a very deep hole in my yard.

Actually, the hole only went down 45 inches.

In a short period of time, there was a concrete pier footing rising from the earth.

The tree expert came out a couple days later and removed 3 trees and some shrubbery for us. Then on October 22nd, the real fun began, Russ and Veronica returned to build the Skyshed. They arrived before the sun with my Skyshed on their trailor.

In no time flat the entire yard was covered with observatory parts.

Soon a floor began to appear.

Then some adjustments.

And some more adjustments.

Finally there was a square and level foundation.

Next came some plank flooring.

Soon there was a finished floor with a nice hole in the middle.

We then tested the fit of the pier.

It then seemed like a good time for some walls.

Then there were four. Wow! that went fast!

The cat wasn't that impressed. But everyone else was.

Next the roof supports were hung with care, in hopes that a telescope soon would be there.

After some fussing and lots of aligning, the roof supports were in place.

By the end of the day the roof gables were in place.

The next day Russ and Veronica returned bright and early to finish the observatory.

After several hours and some rain, the observatory was complete.

Russ and Veronica did a fantastic job and really work as a team. They built the observatory in two days and took their time and made sure every little detail was perfect before they moved on to the next step. They are perfectionists. The Skyshed came out just as I hoped it would.

I added some anti-fatigue flooring and a 10 inch f/6.3 Meade LX200..