Dome or Roll-Off

Folks - anyone have pluses/minuses for domes and roll-offs based on Irish weather conditions (including high winds!)?

Cheers
Dave

Dave,
I have the roll off and have been c***ing myself about the recent storms. I did anchor it at each corner and so far its OK. You do loose a lot of the horizon with the shed walls and thats why I also have a cg5gt mount for those low down targets. I am still much more comfortable inside the shed though.

Kieran

I have decided for Dome exactly because of the wind protection that gives. There is many a clear night here in south-west cork with a good breeze. Especially if I use a dew shield my scope is susceptible to strong winds.

Regards
Jouke

With the 8" on the AP1200, even strong breezes weren't an issue. With the C14 on board though, that may be more of an issue - especially with the dew-shield on.

I'm hoping tonight will be clear with a bit of wind so I can judge the impact of the new OTA on the mount and see if wind is more of an issue than with the 8"

Domes are rather more expensive than roll-offs and more tricky when it comes to automation - but they do seem to give better wind protection.

Also, when we move to Galway, I don;t want to have buy something new

If Eamonn A, Jeff and Dave L are around, your experiences would also be useful...

Cheers
Dave

Domes will give you much better wind and stray-light protection but they also have their drawbacks. If you intend to observe from inside the dome then you will need to have temperature-controlled forced air circulation to prevent the dreaded "dome effect" caused by the body heat of the observer. Making the dome much larger than necessary helps minimise this. The dome aperture/slit *needs* to be *at least 1/3* of the diameter of the dome. Otherwise you will run in to problems with warm air exiting the dome at the margins of the slit and interfering with the light path. I have opted for the over-kill solution and am going for a 5m dome... but this has it's own set of problems - weight!

Phil.

am going for a 5m dome

:shock: