Observatory (home build)

23 images

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  Warm room with tiled floor and workstation. I control the setup from inside my house, all I need to do up here really is open the roof, and focus the telescope. Walls here are insulated and clad in 10mm plywood, which is painted.

  By Tim
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  Looking towards the warm room.

  By Tim
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  Full of junk! My main imaging rig is this MN190 on an EQ6, but the space in the obsy will allow me to add a longer tube in the future.

  By Tim
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  Sun & Moon design wall art available from garden centres that stock Gardman products. Or else I might be able to send one. Guy at the back is a royal pain in the wotsit, his huge Lleylandii and bamboo are a real nuisance.

  By Tim
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  The finished article. Roof felted and guttered into water butt. Solar lights that are operated by remote control come on to help light the doorway, and pathway past my fishpond. At some point I will get around to paving around the outside, I have th

  By Tim
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  Starting to come together now, my stupendously good FLO pier has pride of place. I mounted a scope on a whim, but there is a lot more still to do from this stage!

  By Tim
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  This picture shows the sliding roof fully retracted. The roof is fairly easy to slide, I wanted to keep the weight to a minimum. I pull it back at night one handed.

  By Tim
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  Angle iron rails either side serve as a solid runner for the wheels. Hammerited in black. This shows the sliding roof almost in the home position.

  By Tim
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  The sliding bogey is on! Again with No.1 son at my right hand, we fix the galvanised roof panels (a gift from my neighbour) to the sliding roof. The panels are light, but they do make noise as the roof rolls back, and they attract condensation on dewy da

  By Tim · 2 comments
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  From the entrance looking in. I didn't know it at this point, but the two braces for the roof will go on to serve as part of an ingenious heating solution for the warm room.

  By Tim
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  Cladding nearly complete. This timber is pressure treated with a clear preservative, you pay a few pounds extra for this at the wood yard. Having a trade account there helps.

  By Tim
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  Roof side rails on, shiplap going on, but most importantly, the supports for the rails. I used long coach bolts to fix the timber to the posts and studs, but in retrospect, threaded bar and nuts would have been better, I may swap those at some point. O

  By Tim
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  Warm room roof goes on. This is 18mm OSB with bracing underneath. It can support my weight and my son, so it should handle a bit of snow :)

  By Tim
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  Detail on the walls. Notice southerly wall is lower than the rest for improved views.

  By Tim
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  Whole frame assemble and doorway moved. Note the lower height of the walls in the observing section. These were carefull calculated to allow me to be shielded from lights in the house and street, but still allow enough southerly view to be able to image j

  By Tim
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  No.1 Son. My eldest son Jake was at my side for most of the build, and I couldn't have done it without him. Spare pair of hands and fetching and carrying, essential bit of kit ;)

  By Tim
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  Coffee-a-go-go! Most of my obsy was constructed at night after work with the help of halogen lamps and caffeine!

  By Tim
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  Framework starting to go up. Sloping roof disguised by camera angle. At this point the door was going on the front side as shown, but this got changed later on. Framework was bolted down to the floor. Six 100x100mm posts make up the corners, while the stu

  By Tim
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  The slab is cast in reinforced concrete! This took me and my eldest son from early in the morning till gone midnight to complete, all mixed at the front of the house, then wheelbarrowed up to the end of the garden. The channel in the floor is an Aco drain

  By Tim
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  Block cast for pier, separate from the rest of the slab. Board on the top has dowels in place, where the studs for the pier will be, to save drilling the concrete out afterwards. The dowels swelled with the moisture and had to be drilled out anyway, but i

  By Tim
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  Shuttering for base levelled and squared

  By Tim
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  Marking out and building shuttering for the slab approx 4.2m x 2.2m

  By Tim
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  Before - end of the garden as it was

  By Tim