Grandpa Built This Satellite Dome

Today we went to a place in the Adirondack foothills, just a few miles south of Grandmother's house called Starr Hill. It's on a very tall hillside and on a clear day you can see for many miles. (On a clear night you can see millions of stars).  From this vantage point I could see a white dome in the distance, like a giant golf ball perched on a mountain. To reach the vantage point it's on a Starr Hill Road...actually the same road you take to visit Baron von Steuben's memorial. It's where locals go to stargaze.

 I asked what it was and it's apparently a snow dome, covering a radar dish that my Grandfather built in the early 1960's. He helped to construct it when he worked for the Department of Defense at Griffiss Air Force base nearby.

*EDIT* In 2024 I discovered the road to the top of Starr Hill was open. I drove up as far as I could and was able to walk to wear the radar dome is. The tower is no longer in use, the State of New York made it a historic site and the woods surrounding it are a State Forest. 

Here is my photo looking up at the tower. The locals called it "The Golf Ball"  according to online resources, Starr Hill radio towers and radome were used to conduct communications, radio, and radar experiments by the Rome Air Development Center.

Once I got back to the house, I checked the family photo archive and here is a similar dome under construction. These photos are dated 1964.  The dome was built to protect the dish from weather, because snow and strong wind gales at this high altitude is a concern.

I know I posted one of these pictures before, but here it is again in its proper context.

It's not clear to me how the dome was set up from these pictures. It looks almost like they draped it over the dish and filled it with air like a hot air balloon.