As seen from the image, the observatory is a roll-off observatory. It is constructed in a extension to my house rather then a shed of some sort. My garden is too small to construct a shed so I had to search for different alternatives.

Located between Brussels and Antwerp , the skies in Willebroek only show a few stars in stead of the grand splendour of the Milky Way… At best a limiting magnitude of 3.5 can be reached. The observatory is in the village centre, so seeing is not optimal as well. However, despite the rather poor conditions, I believe an observatory in the city will be more often used then dragging everything to the country side every time. Apart from that it is really nice to have a telescope so close for quick and casual observations for example the Sun during lunch break.

The observatory currently houses a Vixen VMC260, a f11.5 10.25" SubAparture Maksutov Cassegrain. In combination with this telescope, an Optec TCFS (Temperature Controlled Focuser) handles focussing. The main imaging camera is a Santa Barbara SBIG ST10XME. The telescope rides on a Gemini G41 mount. This is a very sturdy mount with a slow periodic error. The telescope is mainly used to do photometry of eclipsing binaries and High Amplitude Delta Scuti (HADS) stars.

Weather conditions are monitored continuously by using a Boltwood Cloudsensor.