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I had a wonderful vertex lovingly dubbed the "booger joint" where 13 struts came together. A few feet behind it was the sexiest vertex in the entire structure, where 9 struts came together, but in a very aesthetic way, with three V shapes meeting in symmetry. We called that one the "lesser booger joint."

It takes 3 days to assemble the Desert Nose, which, by the way is a scale replica of Buckminster Fuller's nose. I mean, if you're gonna make a geodesic nose, seems like it should be his nose. ;-)

I love it!

I read through a bit of your site and at one point you mention that building bottom up creates a situation where all of the errors in the dome accumulate and must be corrected by a single bolt at the top. This is probably true. But, in my experience with several different kinds of geodesic structures, I've found that by leaving all the bolts loose until it is completely assembled, I can "rattle the frame" so to speak (shake the structure) as I build it to help even out the errors. In fact, in assembling the desert nose, it is essential to rattle it as you go to make it possible to assemble at all, because it cannot hold anything close to its final shape until it is practically finished. So, building bottom up can be facilitated by leaving bolts loose.

I recall a camp next to ours with some headstrong folks attempting to build a 3v 5/8 dome. I offerred to provide some tips and help, but they were determined to do it themselves. They tightened each bolt as they built the thing, and by the time they were on ladders, they could not get it together. A day and a half later, in frustration, they losened the bolts and tried again. It took them over two days to get it together -- long days.

Just fyi, I can assemble my 3v 3/8 dome in less than 2 hours, including covering it with tarps. ;-)