New Amateur Observatory

New Zealand amateur, Ivor Merino has just completed a historical agreement with the New Zealand Government, allowing him to build an amateur observatory on the summit of Mount Cook, in the South Island. Ivor explained that the land of the long white cloud did not get its name for nothing, and although he lived in the small town of Kickapakeha at the mountain's foot, far from the bright lights, debauchery and wild living of Auckland and Christchurch, cloud cover prevents him from observing most of the time. During the years 1999 and 2000, in fact, the only clear nights occurred while he was on a week's holiday in Australia.

As Mount Cook often sticks out above this cloud, the number of viewing opportunities is far greater.

The Observatory is lined with sheepskins, and Ivor observes wearing sheepskin overalls heated by lead-lined pockets filed with low-grade atomic waste. These overalls recently featured in the centrefold of the New Zealand Shearers Journal (Black Label Edition).

Ivor commutes from his home in Kickapakeha in an ultralight aircraft designed and built by Australian genius and close friend, Dipso Maniak, and which is powered by Methanol, produced by fermenting environmentally friendly sheep droppings.

This fact helped overcome initial opposition to the construction of the observatory by the usual collection of Feral Conservationists, the "Smallpox Revivalist Group", and the "Ban The Stars: They Are Atomic Reactors Society". Most of the latter group have in fact emigrated to New Zealand so as to avoid their eyes being offended by actually seeing the stars. To avoid survival problems, the Sun (which is sometimes seen through the cloud cover) has been made an Honorary Planet, being a member of the Solar System. Their aim is to declare the universe a Nuclear Free Zone

Ivor and Dipso are currently designing a 100" Dobsonian using an ice mirror. This mirror will be made by rotating a shallow drum of warm water until it reaches a speed at which the centrifugal forces create a paraboloidal hollowing in the centre of the water, and keeping the drum rotating at that constant precise speed until it freezes into that shape in the low temperatures on the summit of Mount Cook.

Phase Two involves spinning the ice mirror blank and pouring a small amount of liquid Mercury onto the surface to coat the entire surface with a reflective surface upon which the Mercury will freeze into shape.

Another innovation is the construction of a tracking table by the controlled melting of blocks of ice and thus controlling the tilt of the telescope.