Astralnomicon/Galactica Clamshells?

Hello,
Does anyone have any feedback on these clamshells or any other clamshells?
thanks
Brian

Hi Guys
I have been an Engineer for some 25 years, and the clam shell design I do not understand,
If you think about professional observatories, domes were created because of the motions induced from the equatorial mount,RA & Dec, thus a dome.
The clam shell is a spherical roll off roof, whats the point.
V.S. a dome which is designed to minimise aperature opening to the telescope, and reduce the instruments exposure from stray light and wind, plus house the instrument,right.
When the clam shell design is open, it exposes everything 360 degrees to everything.
Additionally the clam shell is multi segmented,and I would be conserned about water(rain) and dust.
Please understand I think it's appearance is great, however, it's design, as it relates to the application is geometrically incorrect.
What am I missing guys!!!
Thanks Dennis

For me the clamshell was the best solution.

After toying around with the concept of a rotating dome,I bought a used Astrohaven and am extremely happy with it. I prefer it to the rotating dome for a number of reasons.

My main purpose for having a dome was to keep the scope out of the elements but easily accessible and always set up. I could have done a roll-off roof, but it would have been a pain to engineer one for my roof. The clamshell seemed lots easier.

After installing it we had 2 months of rain and some 50MPH winds. No problem with the dome so I am pleased with the weather seal. Mine is only 6' so it is pretty easy to open.

The nice thing about the clamshell is that if am out under the stars, I want to be under the stars not a roof. Yes you loose a bit more heat, but you don't have to keep moving the slit plus you get to see the constellations.

If it is windy, you can put up one shell or even two as wind blocks. Finally, for a variety of reasons, I am not able to have an isolated heavy pier, so I mounted the pier to a set of independant joists that are separate from the floor joists. I think rotating a dome might have created vibrations that would have shown up in the mount. The clamshell avoids that.