My observatory is situated on the Swedish island of Öland, in the town of Färjestaden. As you can see from the picture, the observatory is of a run-off type and blends in very well with the garden. In the picture the roof has been opened. So well in fact that you would easily mistake it for a garden shed which it emphatically isn't!
The name Strawberry Fields comes from a translation of the Swedish name for the road where we live, Jordgubbsgrand. No connection with the classic Beatles psychedelic song!
The observatory was built by Alexanders Observatories in England and transported in parts to Sweden. My first variable star observations were made from here in March 2008. I have been very happy with the construction of the observatory and would warmly recommend Alexanders to anyone considering building a run-off observatory.
The observatory houses a Meade 30cm ACF telescope (actually a modified Schmidt-Cassegrain) currently set up on a field tripod in altaz mode. I am hoping very shortly to install a pier ordered from Epsilon Telescopes in England followed by a wedge which will enable me hopefully to carry out longer exposure astrophotography (assuming the mount is up to it of course! )The pictures below show the inside of the obsevatory showing the telescope on its current tripod. The picture on the right shows the view looking north
So far I have been very satisfied with the observatory and telescope combination for visual variable star observation. Although the site isn't brilliant light-pollution wise I have still managed to see stars as faint as magnitude 15.4 on a clear, moonless night. The telescope also points well generally with an accuracy of 15 arc minutes which again is very acceptable for visual variable star work.
Recently I have tried some experiments taking astrophotos using the telescope with my Canon 50D DSLR with reasonable results for a beginner. My hope with a wedge and pier will be to extend exposures from 30 secs to 1-2 minutes to capture fainter objects.