BillD's corner of the Universe

Home Page - Site is always under construction.. Many broken bits and dud links

Serenity is my backyard observatory. When I first got into astronomy, I knew I wanted to get into Astrophotography. However, setting up and packing up the gear each night, quickly became an excuse not to do it, so I decided to look into getting a permanent observatory in my backyard…and the Serenity Project was born.  

While investigating my options, I discovered that while the ideal observatory is the classic dome shape, they are expensive to buy and very difficult to build. Back then the dome kits were rare and expensive and they were quite small and cramped. I decided to build a shed with a roof I could roll open. This was more like the standard square shape and was something I could build myself. 

Further down this page you will find details on how I built the Serenity Observatory back in 2008.   

The gallery below shows some of the images I have taken from the Serenity Observatory in my suburban backyard.    

IC 2944 Nebula

IC 2944 Nebula with QHY 268 camera I finally got a couple of clear nights so I was able to capture this nebula as well

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Eta Carina Nebula 2021

Eta Carina Nebula with QHY 268 camera The Carina Nebula or Eta Carinae Nebula is a large, complex area of bright and dark nebulosity in

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Solar Imaging

Solar Imaging Below you will find various images of our sun taken through a specifically designed solar telescope. Never look at the sun without the

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Transit of Venus

Venus Transit

During the once in a lifetime Venus Transit event, I was all setup with two solar telescopes HD recorders and other equipment. However the weather

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HorseHeadHA - Full

Horse Head Nebula

I have tried in the past to get a reasonable image of the horse head nebula, but have never had much success due to the

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Building the Serenity Observatory

Constructing a Backyard Observatory

There are many types of backyard observatory designs. You can buy kits, prefab domes, or even convert existing sheds. I decided to build my own observatory from scratch. It is basically a 'Shed' design with a rolling roof.

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