a001 The grass-field of the observatory on March 21, 1998, the day I started the costruction of the observatory.	a002 A big excavator.
a003 Excavator work is finished.	a004 Some pre-structural work
a005 Concrete and iron for the telescope basement.	a006 Work in progress.
a007 Work in progress.	a008 Work in progress.
a009 Concrete for the basement of the dome wall.	a010 The dome structure is growing.
a011 The dome structure is growing.	a012 The dome structure is growing.
a013 The dome structure is growing.	a015 The top-roof of the observatory.
a016 The top-roof of the observatory.	a017 The top-roof of the observatory.
a018 The top-roof of the observatory.	a019 The walls of the dome just before to install the aluminium structure.

This is one of the principal features of the whole observatory. A dome is more expensive than a roll-off roof and in Italy there are not many dome-makers, and these domes are very expensive, so, after many month of thinking I decided to do-it-by-myself!

I spent a lot of time to set-up the project developing all the drawings in AutoCAD. At the beginning with a no-dimension structure, than with the big help of my brother, we make software simulation of the structure to get a self-sustaining dome as light as possible but strong enough to resists to wind gust (fortunately not so strong in Mozzate) and to a little amount of snow (in the last Century the heaviest snow was about 80 cm).

After a series of simulation we obtained the best solution for the structure. Than, I draw each part in AutoCAD so that, after the calendering of the aluminium profiles we cut them at the exact measure.

After that, a local mechanical industry welded all the parts together.

Than, always with the help of my brother, we put the aluminium coils on each of the 32 slices of the dome.

Every joint was sealed with special silicon for aluminium.

In summer 2001 the dome was painted with aluminium car paint. Following this I put all around the door a special PVC tissue to prevent water incoming during thunderstorms with strong wind.

In the following fall, the dome was insulated with a 32-mm thick sheet of Eurobatex, an elastomeric rubber foam produced in Italy by Union Foam used for the thermal insulation of refrigeration, air conditioning and heating systems.

Finally the inner side of the done has been covered with a thin marine plywood sheet with synthetic coating. This results are visible in the latest snapshots.

After more than three years of weather exposition I never observe some flood of water inside the dome. Only, in the first periods we get some drops coming from the hole of the rivets but this problem was solved rather quickly with acrylic paint dropped in these little holes.

The diameter of the dome is 4.2 m and the aperture is 1.4 m wide. The angle of the sky covered in altitude is 105 degree so it is always possible to look at the zenith and to follow the object well behind.

The dome is totally in aluminium and stainless steel so there is no risk of corrosion neither for oxidation nor for galvanic corrosion. The circular rail is in stainless steel and the main 6 wheels are for high-speed precision machinery so the smoothness of the rotation is very good.

The total weight, at the present, is around 600 kg, but you can rotate the dome with only one finger. For technical information, a force of 120 N is needed to start the rotation and only 80 N are required to keep rotation at speed of 4 degree per second.

a020 The skeleton of the dome. All aluminium	a026 An aerial view of the dome under construction.
a023 The skeleton of the dome.	a024 A close-up of the structure.
a025 The skeleton of the dome viewed from inside the dome.	a022 One of the six wheels that support the dome.
a021 The wheel has a conical section that rolls on a stailess-steel cylindrical rail.	a027 The dome covered with aluminium sheets.
a029	a028 Inside the dome.
a030 A view through-out the door	a031 A fish-eye view of the door.
a032 Under the snow.	a033 Under the snow.
a034 Installation of the telescope pier.	a035 Installation of the telescope pier.
a036 Installation of the telescope pier.	a037 Painting the dome...
a038 Painting the dome...	a040 Painting the dome...
b037 Dome painted!	b004 Insulation of the dome with special refrigerator insulating foam.
b005	b014 Internal insulation, telescope pier and dome aperture.
a042 The support lactice of the internal roof.	a044 The support lactice of the internal roof.
b025	b035
b036b	b008
b038	b040 Esternal view of the building with finished dome.
b041	b001
b018	b019
b046 My old Meade German Equatorial Mount that I used to test pier stability before to install the ParamountME.	b054 Internal finishing with marine plywood.
b055 Internal finishing with marine plywood.	b059 Internal finishing with marine plywood.
Elia_Colt3 The set-up of the ParamountME and C14 the night before Mercury Transit on May 2003	Elia_Colt4 The set-up of the ParamountME and C14 the night before Mercury Transit on May 2003
c001	c005
c007	c009
Control Room Observatory Control Room	Telescope ParamountME + C14 + Ap47
Observatory 20061029a Observatory on October 29th, 2006.	Observatory 20061029b Observatory on October 29th, 2006.
Observatory 20061029c Observatory on October 29th, 2006.

Future improvements

The dome is finished, the internal side is completely covered with nice marine plywood, I have installed also two kind of light: a white one for normal operation and maintenance and a red one for night operation.

Now (January 2007) I am completing the dome automation. I have written the software that manage a couple of electrical engines (by Minimotor ) to rotate the dome (and in case of strong wind  to keep the dome steady).

I suggest you to look at the AutoDome page to get more details about this subject.