[ATMoB-discuss] dome disaster

[Mario E. Motta]

Hello all,

   Hope you are all surviving this weather. Main advantage of living on 
a hill on a peninsula is relatively dark skies, and great steady seeing. 
Main disadvantage is total exposure to the elements when not so good.
Yesterday, up part of night due to heavy winds howling, sounds like an 
airplane. 7 am Sunday heard a loud crack... went to inspect, and to my 
horror, saw that my dome shutter door was missing.  Could not even find 
it at first, dome is on south side of the house. A huge gust of wind 
ripped it off and hurled it right over the house to the North side of 
the house.
After my initial shock and panic, first covered the telescope with a 
cover and tied it up. Then got my son up, who luckily was home for the 
weekend from college. We dragged it into the garage, and devised a plan. 
called a number of neighbors, even our own President Virginia Renehan, a 
town neighbor. All said they would help (great neighbors). Since the 
dome shutter door (14 feet long, 6 feet wide) had cracked the sides, I 
split it into 2 pieces. We then attached ropes, and with 6 people above 
and 2 below with ropes, lived each up from ground to deck. Then lifted 
them onto dome. With someone securing my ladder, I then secured the 
shutter by screwing it onto the dome itself. Took 2 hours, but weather 
did give a break for this thankfully. I then mopped up the rain water in 
dome, and had previously pulled out all the electronics.
Good news is no apparent damage to the telescope. (I had fears that 4 
years of work and many, many hours of work were in real danger of total 
loss!).  Spent all day, but.. no damage to scope, dome proper, or 
electronics).
Will remake the shutter now, remake the side wood work, and the ends. 
Much of the dome shutter door can be salvaged. Looks like the wood that 
spans the width of the shutter were well secured, but.. the wood split. 
Will remake those parts with Hardwoods, and reinforce with aluminum. 
Will also plan on reinforcing rope ties whenever major storm coming. Do 
not want to go thorough this again ever.
I wish to publicly thank Virginia (as well as all my neighbors) for 
their prompt response to my emergency, and saving the scope and dome. 
Hope to be up and running again in 2-3 weeks.
And,  happy birthday Virginia!

Mario