NBC Channel 5 taped an interview of John Spack and his observatory and can be found here:

video.nbc5.com/player/?id=97196

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An excellent way to spend $25.000 in the name of astronomy...the noblest of all the sciences!

It's a mistaken belief that due to Chicago's light polluted skies that that one cannot observe the wonders of the night sky, but a host of planets, star clusters, nebulae and other interesting targets are there to enjoy with affordable telescopic equipment that anyone can own...right under and despite the mercury vapor street lights.

I bet John Spack's equipment and wonderful neighborhood observatory displays the subtle nuances of far distant objects. I often thought about building one on top of my garage, and this is a great inspiration.

Great unique addition to the house...and being single...he can keep it a messy as he wants too!

Way to go John.

Spack, 50, had a telescope as a boy, but Chicago's push for brighter street lights hampered his study of the night sky. "You live in the city, you couldn't see anything. It got put on hold,'' he said.

How about we get rid of the light pollution in the Chicago area so that those of us who do not have $25,000 can see the stars, too!!!!!!

At a time when amateur astronomy is becoming increasingly popular — thanks in part to the availability of high-tech equipment like digital cameras that filter out light pollution — Dr. Motta and his wife, Joyce, are among a growing number of Americans incorporating observatories into new or existing homes. Manufacturers of observatory domes report increasing sales to homeowners, and new residential communities are being developed with observatories as options in house plans.

“As the baby boomers and wealthy tech types retire, they want challenging hobbies like astronomy, and have enough cash stashed away to afford to build their own observatories,” said Richard Olson, president of the Ash Manufacturing Company in Plainfield, Ill., which makes steel domes for observatories. His customers used to be limited to academic and research institutions, but within the last five years, he said, homeowners have begun making requests, to the point where 25 percent of his sales are to people like Steve Cullen, a 41-year-old retired senior vice president of the Symantec Corporation, who is building a home and observatory on 190 acres in Rodeo, N.M.

Mr. Cullen said he chose the location because it has “some of the darkest skies and clearest weather for space photography in the U.S.” (Most sophisticated telescopes now allow for the addition of digital cameras.) He expects the total cost of his observatory, which is still under construction, to be close to $340,000, including a $225,000 telescope, but his is a high-end project.

Most home observatories have between $10,000 and $40,000 in equipment, including telescopes, computers, refractors, filters and tracking mechanisms, according to astronomy equipment retailers. The total budget for an observatory can range from $50,000 to more than $500,000, depending on how technologically advanced the equipment and the size and complexity of the structure.

Dr. Motta also photographs deep space from his home’s observatory, posting his images of distant galaxies online and publishing them in astronomy magazines and journals.

His telescope, which he constructed himself, weighs well over a hundred pounds, and would be cumbersome to move outdoors if he didn’t have an observatory. And like most sophisticated telescopes, it would also require at least an hour of careful recalibration if relocated.

“The reason why people don’t use their telescopes is they are such a pain to haul out and set up,” said John Spack, 50, a certified public accountant who had a domed observatory built on top of an addition to his house in Chicago last year. “Now, if I want to get up at 3 a.m. and look at something, I just open the shutter.”

Like observatories at research facilities and museums, most home observatories now have computers that rotate the dome so the telescope is oriented toward precisely what the user wants to see. Once fixed on a point in space, the dome continues to slowly rotate to compensate for the earth’s rotation, so whatever is in view doesn’t move out of range.

“It’s all fully automated, real high-tech,” said Mr. Spack, who estimated that he spent at least $100,000 to build and equip his observatory. Many home observatories also allow remote real-time views through the telescope from any computer with an Internet connection.

Read the entire article here:

www.nytimes.com/2007/10/04/garden/04observatories.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

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I would like a modest observatory on top of my garage...maybe next year, eh?

I'd like to install the same at my house, near Palatine. Where did the observatory come from, or did Mr. Spack build it himself? I'm curious who the manufacturer is.
Bonitsa@aol.com