Just trying to cover all the big items early...

Made my trip to Rodney's, his shop is always full of very cool airplanes in all phase's of restoration along with other planes in the shop for their annual maintenance or other assorted projects. Being a very noisy person it is great fun for me to look around and I always learn something every time I'm there. My initial thought was that I could cover a dome skeleton and shutter doors with an airplane cloth skin covering and save a pile of money in construction costs. Rodney gave me a short crash course on how it's applied and a rough idea how many years it might last, and we both came to the quick conclusion that for the money, the Poly Dome is the way to go.

My next stop was at Arrowhead Electric, our local co-op. Depending on where we put the observatory it could be a long cable run to my existing power meter and I don't know how far I can go. Their advice was to check with an electrician which, I have to say, wasn't much help. I then asked about a new service just for the observatory and was told that charges for a new service are billed at an actual time and materials rate. His best guess was between $4500 and $6000 for a 500 foot service that puts us only 1/2 way up the hill. I would also have to pay another $35 a month service charge, which equates to monthly bill of $70 before buying any electricity at all. So I guess a trip to a local electrician is important because this might be a very limiting factor on the site selection.