As Facilities Coordinator for Roundup River Ranch, I was part of a team tasked with reassembling and retrofitting a 1965 Ash Manufacturing Company, Ash-Dome Observatory. The dome had been saved from it’s previous home at a university in California and had been sitting in storage for years. As this dome is very old, many items needed were no longer being manufactured and parts needed to be custom made. With the help of Dave Miller from Observatory Solutions, General Contractor RA Nelson and a technician from Ash-Dome we were able to get the bring this vintage piece back to life.
The observatory now houses an antique Lohmann Brothers 9” Refractor Telescope built circa 1915 which was manufactured in Ohio and originally housed at Parsons College in Fairfield, Iowa. Astronomer and antique telescope expert John W. Briggs from the The Astronomical Lyceum in Magdalena, New Mexico refurbished the telescope with a new paint job and a microprocessor controlled micro-step drive motor to track the stars. We and was lowered the telescope into it’s new home by crane through the opening in the dome as I guided it onto a concrete pillar that extends through the basement of the building. The purpose of this concrete pillar is to reduce the scope picking up unwanted vibrations. The whole telescope, including cast iron base, weights close to 2,000 pounds.
