Jump to content

Banner.jpg.b83b14cd4142fe10848741bb2a14c66b.jpg

Hi GaryA from WA here.

GaryA

By GaryA
in Welcome

Recommended Posts

GaryA

GaryA

Posted
Posted

In May 2014 I just went out and bought a Celestrom NexStar 8 and then set it up once in Tammin where I saw Saturn and although freezing, got quite hooked on looking at the Stars, Planets etc.

 The second time set it up at my residents with the chance of getting a look at the night stars and just after setting up and as night came clouds came also through and had to then dismantle and lug it all back inside.

I had another go a few days later after even quoting the weather forecast with clear skies etc reported but the night sky turn miserable again and again dismantle carried it inside, ever so careful as not to damage the scope.

 This had knobs on it and so I looked at the webpages and saw a Observatory of different styles and settled on one called the sky pod which was made in Canada. It looked ok but after finding how expensive it would be to get it here in WA ( AUST), then I settled on my second Style which was the Sliding roof and then set about seeing if it was viable (Cost)and where to build it.

My Wife came up with the idea why not build it inside an existing shed. I was a bit horiffied I was putting a Observatory inside a shed and taking up valuable storage room! :mad:

However after taking measurements and then scaling how the observatory was going to look, just went ahead and built it.

I used 30mm 2.5mm Galvanised SHS for the main frame with Galvanised Iron on the outside wall, Marine ply 6mm on the inside and insulation between them.

I raised the floor to I metre off the ground and built the ridgid floor frame  with 18mm melainme custom board as the floor. I have a cupboard on the floor level where I store the Tripod and anything else I may accrue along the way without my observatory room getting cluttered. The roof weighs over all 170 kilograms and I used typical polyester wheels x 6 bought at Bunnings. The roof first had to be built on a flat surface then all the roofing sheets where fitted and somehow how I happend to keep the accuracy to within 2mm. I then disassembled the roof to 2 section and lifted the it up onto the guide rails by struggling but determine to have it fitted again by night fall on the same day . This was mid summer and I kept at it until it was done without getting sunburnt as you do.

I then fitted the wheels on the Roof and wondered if it would be able to move. I was able to give this try out 9 oclock at night

i was quite amazed how little strength it takes to push it along the rails!

The roof is made out of 25mm 2mm wall thickness SHS Galvanizedwith Galvanised roofing and again 6mm Marine ply for the ceilng. This project I did with extreme pride where routing were done on wood joinery where it was needed and then painted to finish off. It was quite strange how my Wife and myself settled on the same paint to paint the walls, a dark grey.

 Without any further dramatising I started to put the post for the scope into the ground on the 10 October, 2014 and finish building the whole observatory on the 16 of June, 2015. installed the Telescope on the 27th of June and tried out my webcam a Celestron Neximage TD35 webcam and although got some reasonable pics of the moon early on in the evening the other day I could not get any of the planets to show up in my Web cam program called Future TV JOe... Read in my article I posted up in the one of the Forums. where I have gone to some detail what is happening.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
glowjet

glowjet

Posted
Posted

Hi Gary and welcome to SGL, you have obviously taken a lot of trouble to build your obsy, I am sure it will all be worth it in the end.  Look forward to hearing more reports from your neck of the woods in due course, enjoy :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue. By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.