My NEW Location!

The Past

When I started my journey into Astrophotography in 2019, I was was shooting from my driveway.

As I progressed, I got to the point where I was setting three scopes up each clear night I was shooting. This got a little old.

I have documented all of this in the posts:

“My Old Location”

“Setting Up in the Driveway”

But I really wanted to have my own observatory but with all of the trees on my property, it did not make sense to do one there.

So this started a two year search for a property. This was documented in the Posts:

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In October of 2023, we found a property that would support the construction of an observatory! We make an offer - which was accepted - and that put us on a 6-month treadmill of

  • Closing on a house

  • Doig some upgrades on the new house

  • Preparing to Move

  • Moving

  • Settling in

  • Preparing the old house for sale

  • Selling the old house

The New Loocation

Once this was done, I could start planning the new observatory and getting that going.

The is documented in the “Observatory Quest” section of the website.

Our new location is only 2.7 miles from our old house - so we are still located south of the City of Rochester, N.Y.

The backyard of the new house has a hill that is the hight point of the neighborhood and has much more open skies that our old place.

Overview of the Observatory Location

Waiting to Build The Observatory

As I write this, I have signed with a contractor to build the observatory and am hoping to break ground in Mid-August of 2024.

But in the meantime, I have a big problem!

There is no easy way to get my big scopes up the hill for use now! My Scope Lifter/Mover works on pavement - and when I tried to use it to move the big scope across the lawn it was a disaster waiting to happen! So for now, I am constrainted to moving my small scope up the hill.

My Driveway is My Observatory

So - Yeah about that. Now that I am retired, there is talk of moving and the requirement of a skyline clear of trees in an area with dark skies is being discussed. An actual observatory for that location is built into our retirement plan!

But until then - what does that mean?

  • I set up in the driveway every night I shoot. I now run three platforms at the same time. I have become very efficient at doing setup! Look for My Telescope Lifter/Transporter Project - it is a real-life saver!

  • I plotted my tree line in Stellarium and I use this to plan each night’s shooting session - when does the target clear the trees? When does it set into the trees? Enquiring minds need to know!

  • My seeing often sucks. 2.0 -2.5 arc-seconds is a good night. I deal with it.

  • The driveway gets hot and buggy or very cold. So I control everything I can from inside my house. I have two security cameras that watch and listen to things and I stay indoors as much as possible! I love nature as well as anybody else - as long as it is not trying to drain my blood or freeze my digits!

I think the main point is that we all have challenges to deal with when we do Astrophotography.

You just have to deal with it and overcome the obstacles. Quite frankly -it is the challenge of all of these obstacles that makes this pastime compelling and worthwhile for me!