March Meeting

Dye Hill Observatory – The Rubbermaid Wonder

Conrad Cardano will talk about his decision and methods to take a Rubbermaid toolshed and turn it into a one-person observatory. We are all very familiar with the wooden observatories at Seagrave and the expensive ones advertised in Sky & Telescope. Much though had to go into this because it was never made to be an observatory. He will show how his modifications to the toolshed made it into a usable observatory, all for around $1200. There is nothing more convenient than having your telescope in a permanent place.

Conrad has been an amateur astronomer for almost 50 years and a Skyscrapers member for 30 years. As a boy growing up in Maryland, he had a roll-off roof observatory for his 6" reflector.  He studied astronomy and physics at the University of Maryland in the 1970's, but became a computer programmer for the State of Rhode Island. Over the last ten years, he has gone way past the casual observing with his telescope and concentrated on areas like stellar spectroscopy with cameras and telescopes, solar observing with a Lunt Hydrogen-Alpha scope and CCD imaging.