The telescope arrived today

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I knew Jim had ordered a 14" telescope and from my research I was aware that in the telescope world that's a pretty big telescope. Well in reality, I didn't have a clue! When the truck backed up the drive way, I was glad to see it had a lift gate because I did know the telescope weighs over 200 pounds. When the driver opened the door revealing only 3 pallets left in the truck, one small, one big and one huge, I should have guessed ours was the huge one. I placed it next to our snowblower to show scale so maybe you can get an idea of size. The top box is the tripod, bottom box the scope.

After opening the telescope box the holey shit factor flooded over me. The 2nd photo shows the lid off the box and you can see a small black circle on top of the scope, this is the lens cover from my camera, hope that helps you understand just how big this scope really is.

A few other things have fallen into place too. First, the electrical service. Jim had his electrician do the math and he is OK with the run footage. All we will have to do is run a large gauge cable up the hill. He indicated that a 1.0 aluminum 3 strand UPD with a #4 USE ground should do the trick and he will get back to us with the price per foot for the wire.

I also emailed Dan at Poly Dome to inform him we will be going with his dome and we're looking for a March or early April pick up date. I need to call him tomorrow and verify the material list for the building the dome fits on. The warm room size and design is still up in the air. I have looked over a lot of photos of small storage building, garden sheds, playhouses and saunas, but I just can't make up my mind yet and want Pat's opinion.I know she doesn't want some crappy looking box up there and it will also have to work well in the winters deep snow.