Our Black Larch observatory is our first to feature European Larch – often overlooked in favour of the denser Siberian Larch, which due to current restrictions on trade with Russia is largely unavailable. The European larch beams are glue-laminated (GluLam) – a method whereby smaller planks are glued together to form a strong, dimensionally stable beam that is ideal for our purposes. The warmth of the reddish colour of larch never ceases to impress – and it will weather to a rich honey colour before eventually silvering if left untreated.

The floor height in the warm room and observatory differ in this instance; this is a common design feature where accessibility isn’t a problem, because it allows a greater standing headroom in the warm room, whilst elevating views from the observatory and allowing lower horizons for visual astronomers.

Red and white LED lighting is provided in both rooms – white light allowing easy maintenance of the equipment during daylight hours, and red light to preserve night vision when the observatory is in use. All our LED lighting is built in to the walls or ceiling, and is fully dimmable – from full brightness all the way down to nothing – at the touch of the switch. Better still, there is a switch to control the observatory lights from within the warm room, so it’s possible to check what’s going on without leavingt the comfort of your chair!

Externally, our client asked that we incorporate an outside light to match those on their house – no problem of course – and we sized the roll-off frame to allow the installation of a hot tub in the space under the rails. We also incorporated the electrical supply for the hot tub at the rear of the observatory, ensuring the correct minimum distances from the tub were observed per the wiring regulations and providing all the required additional protection components specific to that application.

We chose Origin window and door frames, which have now been seen on two of our observatories (and which we have used many times on other projects). These are exceptionally high quality aluminium frames with 3*-rated locks and all stainless steel hardware. This ensures the warm room stays warm of course, but also provides excellent “Secured by Design” rated security too.

Unusually, the roof of the observatory rolls to the side, rather than over the warm room, similar to our Pennine Observatory. It’s only the second time we’ve taken this approach, but it allows extra flexibility in orienting the observatory to take full advantage of the southerly views available in this case.