Building a club observatory

My advice to you, Dave and Frank, is start getting in touch with places like the Crescent Shopping Centre and others like it. Find out what it will take to do a day or two's display in it. Mostly the only criteria is that you have your own insurance and sometimes you won't be charged usage as it is a charitable club. Get stickers made up and flyers. See if you can get a prize or two (a telescope perhaps?) and sell raffle tickets to get more money.

It sounds like a lot but it is all EASILY within reach of all your members. Little planning is needed too. And once you get your foot in somewhere it will be easy to repeat the procedure again.

Then, just let the money collect itself while you have fun with the general public.

Seanie.

Some thoughts I would have:

Location
Astronomy has changed significantly over the last 20 years. Getting people off their butt, into a car and driving to an observatory site will require something they can't have at home. We live in an age of cheap chinese telescopes. 20 years ago, a 6inch telescope was a BIG telescope. That's no longer the case.
First off, if it is to work, the observatory needs the following:
* easily accessible
* secure
* power for a scope and laptop

Unless you have someone in the club who is willing to offer a piece of land at a reduced price, then raising the funds to *buy* a piece of land where you can have an observatory and park a dozen cars won't be easy. However, you have options. It may be possible, and more affordable, to look at long-term rents. This may be easier to negotiate with people in the club than outright purchase of lands. By long-term, I mean say 6 year lease. At least this allows the landowner to retain posssion of the land whilst at the same time helping out the club. If this isn't possble, it may be worth approaching the likes of Coillte, which is probably the state's largest landwoner. Worth a chat in that direction I reckon. They might have a bit of leftover land which is of little use for forestry. I know of cases where landwoners have leased land from other state bodies, perhaps something similar can be aranged here?

Observatory Type
Dome or roll-off-roof? My vote would be for a large roll-off-roof observatory which can take a scope and at least 15 people in comfort. A dome is the *ideal* observstory for personal use. However, if you have a crowd, only one person can look through the scope at any one time. A roll-off-roof offers all persons in the observatory to look at the entire night sky while waiting for a turn at the eyepiece. It will also be much cheaper and easier to build than a large dome. Someting in the range of a 20ft x 15 ft would be good.
I would suggest designing an observatory as a series of individual panels which can be simply bolted together (and unbolted apart at a later date and moved to another location). I would be more than happy to offer any help I can in the design of the observatory.

Telescope Type
GOTO Alt-az is my recommendation. I have banged my chest ribs enough times into the counterweight shaft of my equatorial mount to know what is needed in a public observatory. And that's just me on my own in the dome - imagine the "fun" with a crowd. A goto 12" telescope would be a fine instrument to have.

Computer
Computing power is a must. You need to be able to run imaging sessions in the dome. A ccd camera and a planetary camera would be recommended.

Funding
Reality is, raising funds won't be easy. It can be done though as Seanie outlined.
Wouldn't do any harm to ask for donations via the club and beyond. You might be surprised at what you might get from simply asking. In these times, it is difficult for people to sell astro gear. They might be willing to donate it if they knew it would be put to good use by the club.
I would suggest developing drawings for what you would ideally like to have. Then you can show something to club members and others when seeking funds. You may be taken more seriously then.

Developing a Connection
Would there be any public or private second-level or third level school/college with whom you could form a connection? Astronomy offers an interesting path into maths and physics. You may not have these connections right now, but mabey you can try and develop a connection with them?

Hope this helps,

Michael.