So sorry for the massive delay.  We are now finally starting to make some progress in the dome.  This is basically because I’ve got a student helper called Edo from Milan who is one of our best undergraduates and as you can see he likes getting his top off.  This wasn’t part of the job description (i.e. cleaning.  Stripping wasn’t either.) but it was taking a while to get anyone else to do it and he said “let me at it!”.

Anyway, he’s really working wonders inside the dome, which was very dirty.  My head of department said I wasn’t allowed to clean it myself, that’s my excuse anyway 🙂

It’s more than a decade of London crud which has blown in through the open hatch.  The central column was also not the kind of thing you’d want to mount anything expensive to

but now it’s looking a lot better!

but the dirt has moved from the telescope to Edo.

We are also making progress working out the electrics and think we might be able to get the lights working inside the dome.

but the hut outside the dome does not yet resemble a scientific laboratory

“HI! YEAH! CAN YOU SEND ME MORE STUDENTS PLEASE!”