The Observatory (and how it got it's name)










Turkey Hill Observatory was built in July 2007 by  Backyard Observatories.  Owner Scott Horstman and crew travel the country building quality built observatories.  I have no business relationship with them other than being a happy customer.  Scott and his wife Diane will build you whatever type of observatory you want.  They took one of their basic plans and adapted my design to it giving me a custom installation.  Prior to the BYO crew's arrival I hired a local excavating contractor and had the concrete slab and pier footer poured.  He also buried pvs conduits from the house to the observatory for electric and data cables. 

All the site prep was done three months before BYO arrived and afterwards I had an electrician install a 100 amp service panel in the observatory and the rest was finish work.  My wife and I painted, installed the pier, laid carpet, flooring, etc and it finally saw first light on August 21, 2007.  I would call the observatory my best investment in astronomy and best accessory I have.  People spend a fortune on this stuff and if you have room in your yard, budget and a willing spouse then I'd highly recommend an observatory whether you have it professionally built or build it yourself.

Now how did it come to be called "Turkey Hill Observatory?"  I live near a hill in the town of Merrimack called Turkey Hill.  And although I live on a different hill than Turkey Hill, I get turkeys sometimes by the dozens in my yard almost daily.  They are fun to watch, although they have been known to dig up my yard, so we thought the name Turkey Hill Observatory was fitting.  The turkey pictures accompanying the irritating turkey gobbling on the main web page are snapshots from my yard.

I got plenty of inspiration from other people's pictures and web pages featuring their observatories so I thought I would share pictures of mine in the various stages of construction and finished photos.  I hope you get ideas for your observatory and for those of you thinking about building one, all I can say is it will be the best accessory for astronomy you ever bought!

Now on to the pictures....