IN a herculean effort, amateur astronomer Ray Pickard has dismantled his observatory at Bathurst Goldfields and relocated it to his research facility on the Limekilns Road.
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A crane lifted the dome off the walls and then each component of the observatory building was disassembled and trucked back to the research site for refurbishing.
“It was quite an ordeal,” Mr Pickard said.
He and a team of volunteers spent two days dismantling the building and its dome.
They will now take a little a breather and then reassemble it in its old home.
The dome was originally located at the Bathurst Observatory Research Facility, but he moved it to the Goldfields a number of years ago to make it easier for the public to access.
Mr Pickard used the dome and its telescope to provide visual tours of the night sky to members of the community who enjoy looking to the heavens.
However, as Bathurst grew and the light pollution at Mount Panorama increased, the ability to view objects in the night sky was affected.
As Mr Pickard is set to contribute to an asteroid project run by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), bringing the telescope home seemed the logical move.
Mr Pickard said the building had not been used for the past five or six years.
“We have taken down the walls, the roof and the dome,” he said. “It bolts together like a kit.”
“We dismantled it and now we will have to put it back together again. I will refurbish it and give it a good clean and then the research telescope can go back in and I will start work on the asteroid project.”
He said the refurbishment will take about two weeks.
Mr Pickard said although Bathurst is creeping out towards the observatory, it is still reasonably dark out Limekilns way.
Once the building has been put back together again, it will be used for research and imaging.
Mr Pickard said the telescope, which will be housed inside, has been specifically designed to carry out research for NASA’s asteroid project, and it will play an integral role in providing the planet with early warning of asteroid strikes.
He is also is in talks with NASA about using the observatory to track asteroids in the southern hemisphere. He said this kind of asteroid research is mostly carried out in the northern hemisphere, but Australia is ideally situated for it.