After much waiting, the opener mechanism has been installed on the roof. At the press of a button, I can open the roof. The opener is an industrial vertical door opener. The roof is quite heavy, I would estimate at least 2,000 lbs, so getting the roof moving takes quite a bit of torque. I know from moving the roof manually, that once it is moving, it moves fairly smoothly, but starting it takes quite a shove. With the motor, it moves quite smoothly, fully opening in about a minute. The motor does have a chain-operated backup in case power is out or the motor is not operational.

Here is a wide shot of the whole set-up. The opener is attached to the observatory wall, and the track was welded onto the opener beam. There are some finish details to be completed. The track will be enclosed in a shroud of roof metal and the motor cover will be painted to match the walls.

This shot shows the detail of the motor and attachment to the roof. The chain set-up is bolted to the roof, attaching into the steel studs under the roofing material.

Unfortunately, we had thick high clouds all weekend, so there was no astronomy. But opening the roof was pretty cool!