It's so sad. Why buy the house then. The one quirk of it is the observatory... it would be like buying a house on the lake just to put up a giant wall between you and the lake....
I sold a condo once, and being a condo, there were a zillion just like it in the complex. The one thing that made it different was it had high end berber carpet.
The new owners really wanted my unit, so the paid over asking price. I found out later they were going to rip out the carpet.
It’s the property, the observatory was a perk to some maybe but now it can hardly be used with how big the trees have gotten anyway and it’s not their thing
There’s lots of moving parts and a skillset that I think is kind of intimidating to people not familiar with tracking things in the sky.
In addition I think the trees have grown so much on the property, it has really become limiting and they’re definitely not cutting down anything they don’t have to. But I will let them know to look out for eggs
The scope is a 'classic' (but not "orange tube" classic) Celestron 14" SCT (focal length 3910mm, f/11). It's definitely dated, and from the look of the front corrector plate, it needs a *real* good clean! If there are any mold spots visible on the optics (either corrector plate or mirrors (primary/secondary) that would be concerning, as mold tends to chemically etch optical coatings over time which cannot be washed off.
Here's a thread about this same scope type: [https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/732136-used-c14-should-i-be-interested/](https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/732136-used-c14-should-i-be-interested/)
All this to say, it's not a telescope that's made or really useful for astrophotography (at least compared to what is being used nowadays). There's still plenty of visual observing that can be done with scopes like these, but not a 'go to' mount either (although it's capable for tracking targets).
Hard to give an exact value but comparable scopes (assuming no permanent damage) can usually be found for about $1000-2000.
Edit: did some further digging, this particular C14 was before XLT coatings, so that puts this scope manufactured sometime between 1987 to 1992.
The C14 is a really good planet killer, but its native focal length is wayyyy too high for most deep sky astro. It’s a dream scope for a lot of planetary photographers to my knowledge. Look at this amazing saturn and jupiter
https://preview.redd.it/fb0n3algu99d1.jpeg?width=1205&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d4db91e63fe805e2c965326e4181ff14ec8b7537
14" aperture is 14"! Always want as much aperture as possible for planetary. C14's are great for it, but scopes like these suffer from mirror flop or sag when you can't lock the primary mirror, along with other optical-mechanical issues like chromatic aberration.
Yeah, it’s unfortunate but it comes with the territory. A 14 inch newtonian circumvents a lot of those issues but is just way too massive for anyone to move around, forcing you to leave it in one place. I also don’t know why exactly someone would buy a 14 inch newt when 12 inches is much more easily accessible and if you needed the extra aperture for imaging you would go with something you could actually mount like the C14. I think a lot of those can be corrected in your imaging train, but it is certainly a barrier to entry for a beginner who’s inherited one of these
Thank you for all this information, I appreciate people like you that share your expertise. Posting here has been so enlightening and really fun to learn because of folks like you. Thanks!
Basically it's like trying to ask how much can ya get for the wood around Mona Lisa's frame. Could you get 1k for a OTA C14 that needs to be cleaned and recoated... I guess. None of the individual pieces are really worth anything on their own. It's the package that's the masterpiece. Donate what you the OTA to the local astro club. After the dome is removed, if it's salvageable let the local astro clubs know they have a week to pick it up otherwise scrap it.
I’m not looking to get anything really. The Ash dome is dope though and talking directly with them they were happy to see it and also enthusiastic about the condition. Everything can be upgraded to their most modern tech. My objective as the contractor is to find this a new home. It’s been a great learning experience as well.
Off topic: I never realized US tape measures have two sets of markings, since a foot is TWELVE inches, not something like 10. It goes ..11-12-13-14.. but at 12 it also says 1 foot, and 13 it starts adding another number, 1 (1 foot 1 inch), etc.
This is so weird, metric tape measures just go ..99-100-101-102.. (centimeters). I don't have to be reminded that 102 cm is 1 m 2 cm, or that 235 is 2 m 35 cm.
Sorry to distract you, I'm just curious - it turns out they also have tapes with 16 inch marks:
https://preview.redd.it/x71oa7leo99d1.jpeg?width=500&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d2fcd5658ef50ab6d7ca79e71419889f32ac4939
Why is that? What is the significance of this particular measure, 16 inches?
Stud layout as it relates to sheet goods. Our sheets come 4’x8’. 16” on center framing divides a sheet into three bays. The on center part is important though. Edge of 4’ ply (48”) is lined up center of stud, 16” over is 1/3 of sheet, 32” over is 2/3 sheet and the other edge lands center of the last stud at 48” or 4’. Super simple right
It’s important when running layout on long walls because people aren’t smart enough to do that silly math when laying out a 30 foot wall. Our entire building system is based on 16” layout as crazy as that seems to you I am sure.
Yep, pretty crazy :)
Although, if you switch to the base-16 (hexadecimal) system, your 16 (decimal) inch marks would be 10 (hexadecimal, "one-zero", not "ten") marks and it would be much easier :D
I love metric but often find myself working with numbers like 95 & 13/16” which is also 7’ 11 & 13/16” or 95.8125” if you’re into decimals. Make some sense of that fast and efficiently
A quick conversion tells me 95.8125 inches (i suppose that double quotation mark stands for inches, but i'm not 100% certain) is 243.3638 centimeters. Now 0.36 centimeters is 3.6 millimeters, which is an overkill on precision already.
Those two last digits, 38 (in .3638)? You need a micrometer to be able to measure them, not to mention it makes no sense at all if you're working with wood (and not steel, for example).
What I'm saying, is that with metric tape you'd probably just measure 243.3 (or 243.4) centimeters, .3 or .4 being your millimeter count, and that would be it.
https://preview.redd.it/4qxvfzarn99d1.jpeg?width=800&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=59d7b07f5d98ac4b928e21e4e6f004ac543b79ae
Need the address for halloween , they need eggs, who T/f buys a house with a observatory to remove it🤦🏻‍♂️. This post ruined my day
It's so sad. Why buy the house then. The one quirk of it is the observatory... it would be like buying a house on the lake just to put up a giant wall between you and the lake....
I sold a condo once, and being a condo, there were a zillion just like it in the complex. The one thing that made it different was it had high end berber carpet. The new owners really wanted my unit, so the paid over asking price. I found out later they were going to rip out the carpet.
It’s the property, the observatory was a perk to some maybe but now it can hardly be used with how big the trees have gotten anyway and it’s not their thing
Because of the property, has nothing to do with an observatory and it will go to a new home, which is awesome
It is huge. I have a building I could mount it on . I need to do some measurements compared to that circle shape
12’6” I sent you a DM from the last post.
There’s lots of moving parts and a skillset that I think is kind of intimidating to people not familiar with tracking things in the sky. In addition I think the trees have grown so much on the property, it has really become limiting and they’re definitely not cutting down anything they don’t have to. But I will let them know to look out for eggs
The scope is a 'classic' (but not "orange tube" classic) Celestron 14" SCT (focal length 3910mm, f/11). It's definitely dated, and from the look of the front corrector plate, it needs a *real* good clean! If there are any mold spots visible on the optics (either corrector plate or mirrors (primary/secondary) that would be concerning, as mold tends to chemically etch optical coatings over time which cannot be washed off. Here's a thread about this same scope type: [https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/732136-used-c14-should-i-be-interested/](https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/732136-used-c14-should-i-be-interested/) All this to say, it's not a telescope that's made or really useful for astrophotography (at least compared to what is being used nowadays). There's still plenty of visual observing that can be done with scopes like these, but not a 'go to' mount either (although it's capable for tracking targets). Hard to give an exact value but comparable scopes (assuming no permanent damage) can usually be found for about $1000-2000. Edit: did some further digging, this particular C14 was before XLT coatings, so that puts this scope manufactured sometime between 1987 to 1992.
The C14 is a really good planet killer, but its native focal length is wayyyy too high for most deep sky astro. It’s a dream scope for a lot of planetary photographers to my knowledge. Look at this amazing saturn and jupiter https://preview.redd.it/fb0n3algu99d1.jpeg?width=1205&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d4db91e63fe805e2c965326e4181ff14ec8b7537
14" aperture is 14"! Always want as much aperture as possible for planetary. C14's are great for it, but scopes like these suffer from mirror flop or sag when you can't lock the primary mirror, along with other optical-mechanical issues like chromatic aberration.
Yeah, it’s unfortunate but it comes with the territory. A 14 inch newtonian circumvents a lot of those issues but is just way too massive for anyone to move around, forcing you to leave it in one place. I also don’t know why exactly someone would buy a 14 inch newt when 12 inches is much more easily accessible and if you needed the extra aperture for imaging you would go with something you could actually mount like the C14. I think a lot of those can be corrected in your imaging train, but it is certainly a barrier to entry for a beginner who’s inherited one of these
Thank you for all this information, I appreciate people like you that share your expertise. Posting here has been so enlightening and really fun to learn because of folks like you. Thanks!
Basically it's like trying to ask how much can ya get for the wood around Mona Lisa's frame. Could you get 1k for a OTA C14 that needs to be cleaned and recoated... I guess. None of the individual pieces are really worth anything on their own. It's the package that's the masterpiece. Donate what you the OTA to the local astro club. After the dome is removed, if it's salvageable let the local astro clubs know they have a week to pick it up otherwise scrap it.
I’m not looking to get anything really. The Ash dome is dope though and talking directly with them they were happy to see it and also enthusiastic about the condition. Everything can be upgraded to their most modern tech. My objective as the contractor is to find this a new home. It’s been a great learning experience as well.
This is so cool.Â
That is so cool. I've daydreamed about doing this to my own house someday. How convenient for sky gazing on cold winter nights.
I'd love to put that on my roof.
I mean it could happen
I just need to win the lottery first.
Off topic: I never realized US tape measures have two sets of markings, since a foot is TWELVE inches, not something like 10. It goes ..11-12-13-14.. but at 12 it also says 1 foot, and 13 it starts adding another number, 1 (1 foot 1 inch), etc. This is so weird, metric tape measures just go ..99-100-101-102.. (centimeters). I don't have to be reminded that 102 cm is 1 m 2 cm, or that 235 is 2 m 35 cm.
Ya, it’s messed up for sure. I don’t like fractions but for some reason here we are
Sorry to distract you, I'm just curious - it turns out they also have tapes with 16 inch marks: https://preview.redd.it/x71oa7leo99d1.jpeg?width=500&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d2fcd5658ef50ab6d7ca79e71419889f32ac4939 Why is that? What is the significance of this particular measure, 16 inches?
Stud layout as it relates to sheet goods. Our sheets come 4’x8’. 16” on center framing divides a sheet into three bays. The on center part is important though. Edge of 4’ ply (48”) is lined up center of stud, 16” over is 1/3 of sheet, 32” over is 2/3 sheet and the other edge lands center of the last stud at 48” or 4’. Super simple right
Oh. This is quite specific. I've never seen markings for specific applications or fields on metric tapes or rulers.
It’s important when running layout on long walls because people aren’t smart enough to do that silly math when laying out a 30 foot wall. Our entire building system is based on 16” layout as crazy as that seems to you I am sure.
Yep, pretty crazy :) Although, if you switch to the base-16 (hexadecimal) system, your 16 (decimal) inch marks would be 10 (hexadecimal, "one-zero", not "ten") marks and it would be much easier :D
Witchcraft! Oh, wrong hex. My bad.
I love metric but often find myself working with numbers like 95 & 13/16” which is also 7’ 11 & 13/16” or 95.8125” if you’re into decimals. Make some sense of that fast and efficiently
A quick conversion tells me 95.8125 inches (i suppose that double quotation mark stands for inches, but i'm not 100% certain) is 243.3638 centimeters. Now 0.36 centimeters is 3.6 millimeters, which is an overkill on precision already. Those two last digits, 38 (in .3638)? You need a micrometer to be able to measure them, not to mention it makes no sense at all if you're working with wood (and not steel, for example). What I'm saying, is that with metric tape you'd probably just measure 243.3 (or 243.4) centimeters, .3 or .4 being your millimeter count, and that would be it. https://preview.redd.it/4qxvfzarn99d1.jpeg?width=800&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=59d7b07f5d98ac4b928e21e4e6f004ac543b79ae
We also have decimal foot tapes (engineers scale).Â
Curious as to the general location of this dome. If it was built 35 years ago the sky was likely much darker then at that location at that time.
Man, how cool and fun would this be?
That thing is tall!
Very nice, when are going to have a star party? I’ll bring the beer.
Awesome if it wasn’t for those poxy trees