We had a good monsoon rainstorm on Friday, 21 August.  After it passed through I did a leak check in the POD.  There were no leaks!  Good!  I also took some more items to the POD.  I added an 18' red rope light around the circumference of the POD at the floor.  Shortly after I finished installing the rope lighting and closed up the POD, another heavy rain shower came through.  I got back to the house just in time!

On Saturday, 22 August, I took a few more items to the POD.  Since I now have a permanent place for the LX200, I decided to take some time to level the tripod.  When I first set it up, I was just too anxious to get things going so I skipped that step.  But now that it was cloudy, I figured it was a good time to do it. 

Friday night we had some more heavy rain.  While I was in the POD on Saturday I noticed a minor leak that appeared to be coming from the bottom of the primary dome sections join (same location as a leak I saw on 25 July).  I say "appeared" as I couldn't see any source of the leak.  The leak was so minor that I wasn’t too worried about it.  I decided that I would have to sit in the POD during a heavy rain and see if I could determine the source of the leak!  Unfortunately, I missed being in the POD during a heavy rain Saturday afternoon.  After it ended I checked the POD; there were two, perhaps three leaks.  There was no leak where I saw one earlier in the day.  There was water at a pivot joint.  There was water at the bottom where two of the bays were joined.  There was also some water evident at another bay join bottom, but I couldn't tell whether the water came from the pivot area above or had come in through the bay join.  At any case, I applied some sealant to the two open bay joins on the inside of the POD; hopefully that would keep any rain water from splashing in from the outside.  I still was not certain where the primary dome leak nor the pivot area leaks were originating from.  More detective work would be required.

On Monday afternoon, 24 August, we had a heavy rain shower come through.  I ran out to the POD during the rain and while I was inside the POD I was able to determine (I think) where one of the leaks was coming from.  The metal plate under the primary dome seems to be catching runoff from down the channel where the two primary dome sections are joined (see the photo at the top of this entry).  I decided I would seal off the edge of the plate to keep the water from coming inside.  As I was pondering that leak I was getting some very small drops of water hitting me from above!  I looked up and noticed some very small drops at the top of the primary dome.  Apparently the L-gasket wasn’t sealing up at the top as well as it should and so rain water was splashing in through a gap.  This photo shows light come in through the gap:

After it stopped raining I went outside the POD and could see that the L-gasket wasn't fitting correctly at the top of the dome.  The gap is hard to see in this photo but it is there, just to the right of the secondary dome join seal.

I began to wonder if the previous leaks I’d seen near the pivots were actually just water that had run down from the top of the dome. 

A couple of things that were very obvious from inside the POD:  Hard rain hitting the dome sure is loud!  So is thunder!

Last night, even though it was cloudy, I went to the POD to check the brightness of the red rope lighting.  I wanted to see if I needed a dimmer switch for it.  I quickly decided I did need a dimmer!  The POD is so dark inside that the normal red rope light is too bright!  Also, I determined that I still need some more sealing at the base where two bays join on the west side.  The interior carpet was a little wet, apparently from some of the rain being blown through the gap between the bays.  Apparently the sealant I had applied previously on the inside of the POD was insufficient.

This morning, I applied sealant outside of the POD at the base where two bays join and inside the POD under the metal plate.  Hopefully that will stop the leaks.  In looking at the gap at the top of the dome, it almost appeared that the top of the secondary dome has flattened out a little bit, opening up a gap beneath the L-gasket.  I’m not certain yet what I'm going to do about that.  On the good side, it lets heat escape.  On the bad side, it could be a source of insects getting in.  Fortunately, it lets only a few very small drops of water splash in.  Decisions, decisions, decisions.

The weather forecast for the next several days and nights is for more monsoon storms and cloudy skies.