Pictures of the Construction of the IR Survey Facility

Last update : 12 January 2001

IRSF Information by I.S. Glass, Project Coordinator for SAAO


The Building


Digging the hole
irs003.jpg / irs004.jpg / irs006.jpg / irs008.jpg / irs015.jpg / irs016.jpg /

Digging the trench
irs017.jpg / irs019.jpg / irs021.jpg /

Drilling
irs010.jpg / irs011.jpg /

Blasting
irs023.jpg / irs024.jpg / irs026.jpg / irs028.jpg / irs030.jpg /

A piece of granite that survived the blast
irs8.jpg / irs9.jpg /

Casting the pier
mvc-001x.jpg / mvc-002x.jpg / mvc-003x.jpg / mvc-004x.jpg /

Build to foundation level
irs2.jpg / irs5.jpg / irs6.jpg / irs7.jpg / irs031.jpg / irs032.jpg /

Brick up the (square) walls
irs033.jpg / irs036.jpg / irs038.jpg / irs040.jpg / irs041.jpg / irs043.jpg / irs044.jpg / irs050.jpg /

... and the dome walls
irs048.jpg / irs049.jpg / irs053.jpg / irs054.jpg / irs055.jpg / irs057.jpg /

The (A)team - Andrew, Gerhardus & Fanie
irs056.jpg /

Casting the deck
irs058.jpg / irs064.jpg / irs069.jpg / irs071.jpg /

Casting the dome ring
irs072.jpg / irs073.jpg / irs077.jpg / irs079.jpg / irs082.jpg / irs084.jpg /

Finishing off
irs074.jpg / irs078.jpg / irs088.jpg / irs089.jpg / irs090.jpg / irs093.jpg / irs097.jpg / irs106.jpg /

Installing the Air Conditioning
irs109.jpg /

Installing the Hoist, Catwalk & Louvers
irs104.jpg / irs105.jpg / irs110.jpg / irs113.jpg / irs115.jpg /

All round view of the finished product (without the dome)
irs116.jpg / irs117.jpg / irs118.jpg / irs119.jpg /


See it grows - all taken from the 40" dome slit
1999/09/17 - Start digging - irs002.jpg
1999/09/20 - More digging - irs012.jpg
1999/09/21 - Finished digging - irs018.jpg
1999/10/12 - Dome pier done - irs1.jpg
1999/10/14 - Foundation walls built up - irs4.jpg
1999/10/17 - ... filled and compacted - irs3.jpg
1999/10/25 - Building walls up - irs047.jpg
1999/10/26 - Starting on the dome - irs052.jpg
1999/10/28 - Dome walls up, deck boxing done - irs061.jpg
1999/10/29 - Deck reinforcing done - irs067.jpg
1999/11/03 - Deck finished, starting on dome ring - irs076.jpg
1999/11/10 - Dome ring done - irs086.jpg
1999/11/12 - Finishing off - irs096.jpg
1999/11/19 - Deck sealed - irs101.jpg
1999/11/23 - Aircon being installed - irs108.jpg
1999/11/25 - Painting almost done - irs114.jpg
1999/12/02 - Finished, apart from the dome - irs120.jpg
1999/12/25 - Finished, covered for rain - irstel.jpg
2000/04/12 - Finished, complete with Dome - irs160.jpg
An animation of the above


The Dome


Assembling the dome on the ground
irs121.jpg / irs123.jpg / irs125.jpg / irs126.jpg / irs127.jpg / irs129.jpg / irs130.jpg / irs131.jpg / irs132.jpg /

Installing the Dome Shutters
irs134.jpg / irs135.jpg / irs136.jpg / irs137.jpg / irs138.jpg / irs139.jpg / irs140.jpg / irs143.jpg /

The Dome construction Team!
irs142.jpg /

The Dome being put on top of the building
irs144.jpg / irs145.jpg / irs146.jpg / irs147.jpg / irs149.jpg / irs151.jpg / irs150.jpg / irs161.jpg / irs162.jpg / irs163.jpg / irs164.jpg / irs159.jpg / irs157.jpg / irs158.jpg /


The Telescope


The Telescope being built in the Nishimura factory, Japan
irsf.jpg / nishi.jpg /

Installation in Sutherland:

The Azimuth Base
irsf03.jpg / irsf04.jpg / irsf11.jpg / irsf12.jpg / irsf13.jpg /

The Azimuth Turntable
simg_0152.jpg (large image) / simg_0164.jpg (large image) / simg_0166.jpg (large image) / simg_0190.jpg (large image) /

The Fork
simg_0224.jpg (large image) / simg_0226.jpg (large image) / simg_0229.jpg (large image) / simg_0230.jpg (large image) / simg_0231.jpg (large image) / irsf16.jpg /

The Elevation Cube
irsf14.jpg / irsf18.jpg / irsf17.jpg / irsf19.jpg / irsf20.jpg / irsf23.jpg / irsf25.jpg /

The Truss and Top End
irsf26.jpg / irsf29.jpg / irsf32.jpg / dsc00013.jpg /

The Mirror and Mirror Cell
irsf35.jpg / irsf37.jpg / irsf38.jpg / irsf39.jpg / dsc00012.jpg /

The official opening ceremony on 15 November 2000
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The telescope being balanced with SIRIUS mounted
dsc00015.jpg / dsc00016.jpg / dsc00017.jpg / dsc00018.jpg / dsc00019.jpg / dsc00020.jpg / dsc00021.jpg /

First light with SIRIUS in Sutherland
On 27 December 2000, 30Dor (NGC2070) /


See also the Mechanical page's Gallery