The Halley Observatory

Another object we salvaged from the trip was the Sat Dome, (I think we had permission). This I used in the construction of the Halley observatory which housed the 11 inch telescope. I designed the observatory and with the help of Mike 'Nido' Lawton, Howling Dave Brown, Paul Drury and Rob Weight we constructed the observatory during the winter of 1993. It was launched from the garage in May I think, to the theme of 2001 A Space Odyssey which was broadcast over the HF radios. The design was tested on its first night out when we were hit by the tail of a hurricane, which was extremely unusual, and we had wind speeds which actually broke the hand-held anemometer and which caused a lot of conversation in the bar as to how much the platform could take, the whole place was rocking and I think the crack up the central corridor got slightly wider also that night. The observatory survived and actually had the smallest windtail of any structure on the base which really interested the chaps monitoring snow accumulation. What became of the Observatory? recent photos and diaries don't offer any clues.

"Dave Brown welding something on the Observatory during the winter of 1993." Picture by Shaun Burkey

"The moment the Observatory was launched from the garage. (Andy 'Spanners' Morgan was glad to see the back of it I'm sure.)" Picture by Shaun Burkey

Plan of the observatory Sketch by Shaun Burkey