The LAstarworks Bastion Observatory is a permanent, custom‑engineered deep‑sky imaging installation built on a reinforced steel‑concrete pier for maximum stability and long‑term scientific reliability. It combines open‑source innovation with sculptural industrial design, forming a hybrid between a functional astronomical instrument and a large‑scale art piece.
At the heart of Bastion is an OpenAstroTracker GoTo mount, developed by the Open Astro Tech community, fully integrated into a modular system that supports precision tracking and automated celestial targeting. The optical core features a Carl Zeiss Jena 180mm f/2.8 lens paired with IMX477 and IMX290 sensor modules, enabling high‑sensitivity imaging, guiding, and multi‑camera experimentation.
The observatory is enclosed within a 1‑meter 3D‑printed dome shaped as an astronaut’s helmet, constructed from approximately 100 interlocking segments. This dome is not merely aesthetic: it provides environmental shielding, reduces air turbulence, controls stray light, and houses the internal electronics, guiding systems, and future sensor expansions. The astronaut form reflects the project’s artistic identity while serving as a functional protective structure.
Bastion occupies the central position within a permaculture‑inspired garden on a rural property in Piljenice, Sisak‑Moslavina County. Its placement is intentional: the observatory acts as the gravitational point of the landscape, a symbolic and literal axis around which the surrounding self‑sustaining systems — food production, energy independence, water management and ecological design — quietly orbit. In this environment, Bastion becomes more than an observatory; it becomes a philosophical anchor, a meeting point between human craft, natural cycles, and the night sky.
Designed as an evolving platform, Bastion’s modular electronics, power systems, guiding architecture, and sensor array are continuously upgraded, with the long‑term goal of achieving the precision and reliability required for Minor Planet Center registration and participation in collaborative observational projects.
It is a fusion of engineering, astrophotography, open‑source philosophy, rural self‑sufficiency and personal artistic vision — a permanent observatory built not only to capture the night sky, but to belong to the land beneath it.