My new observatory location, in the meadow on the grounds of our new home in Hillsboro, Oregon, as seen from a drone. Difficult to see from this view, but McKay creek winds all the way around three sides of the meadow and wooded area (hence the name I chose for the observatory).

From this view, the meadow looks very enclosed by trees, but the sky view is much better from the ground than it looks here. I won’t have the sort of horizons that visual observers would demand, but for imaging I’m only interested in relatively high altitudes; anything much below 40° tends to be badly impacted by seeing, light gradients, and reduced transparency and I prefer to avoid it.

Importantly, though, there is a pretty good horizon view to the south, looking over the top of the railroad trestle just visible at the bottom left. That will give me access to a pretty good expanse of sky at different times of year.

I have a SkyShed POD arriving in a couple of weeks, and I’m going to be starting to get set up by just sitting my portable pier on the ground for now inside the POD. This will give me a chance to try out different locations to see how they work. Eventually I plan to build an elevated deck and permanent pier to set everything on, but that can wait for the time being.

I will post updates with pictures as I get everything set up and running.