Yawning Angel

A few weeks of no tangible progress, but today I ordered up the framing timber and cladding. Friday, I loose half of my driveway to wood Onwards and upwards

I was in 2 minds about doing that too. It seems that batons and an air gap is worthwhile if it's insulated, to allow vertical airflow, but that leads to needing insect mesh to protect the void. Argh!

Thanks Martyn. The passersby were all 100% pleasant and curious. I even had a taxi driver pull up haha.

At the end of my time with Saturn, it got eaten!!

Saturday the 5th, both Saturn and Mars finally presented themselves in my southern 'window', and the weather for once was favourable. I got set up, with time to spare while Saturn was getting ready to enter the stage from behind the curtain of next doors house. Now, when you set up a telescope on your driveway, people notice. Queue the first question of the evening - "Is that a telescope?" Much as the sarcastic answer was bubbling away trying to escape my mouth, we had a nice chat about Saturn and Mars for 25 minutes. Meanwhile, unnoticed, a bank of cloud rolled in to neatly cover the 10 degrees of southern horizon I needed. There was (internal) swearing! Never mind, a cup of tea later and a glimmer started to show through clear bands in the sneaky clouds - Aha, we might be ok after all! And we were - plagued a little by clouds, wobbly seeing, street light and curious dog walkers I managed my first time both observing and imaging these gems of the night sky Celestron C8 / AVX mount, ZWO ASI120mc-s, ZWO ADC (first light - nice kit!). Stacked 15% from around 5000 frames each in Autostakkert 3, Wavelets to taste in Registax and a dash of PS and a shot of mars 'down the barrel' - streetlights and all

Looking very nice, Kev! Are you cladding directly over the top of the membrane, or running batons?

I plan to access it once it's in place - but I'm thinking of using stud connectors threaded onto the bar to make a stable join, with washers if it needs leaveling to any great degree. Should make it pretty bomb-proof

That's what I thought when I came across them a few years back. By far the best digging tool I've owned!

Thanks Alan its a narrow, curve section shovel - quite thick metal, and great for slicing neat holes and trenches and punching through roots and bricks http://www.spear-and-jackson.com/product/tubular-steel-shovels/tubular-steel-newcastle-draining-16

Indeed. I'm going to make up a nice short centre bolt, then drop those right down - I've plenty of height to play with. That said, it's pretty solid

Ooh, found some upvc in 2400x1200 sheets - ordered a sample Thanks Collected the pier from Rother Valley Optics too <glee>

The frame isn’t fixed down at the moment, but it will be wrapped beforehand, yes. The staggered ends seemed to make sense, leaving as little exposed end grain as possible, but I’m sure I cribbed it from a build on here. If it’s not yours, perhaps James’ Just weighing up ideas for the back wall, as it needs to be low / maintenance due to being very close to the fence. Front runner at the moment is the same coating that’s going on the roof (25 yr before maintenance, if it performs to spec), but over vertical OSB panels - built and coated flat then raised and fixed ‘finished’.

Collecting the pier on Saturday! Should be doing the concrete on Sunday, all being well

Progress today. Base framing done, awaiting joists next. Slate ground cover heaped up for now, as the pier pour is next weekend and I didn’t fancy a landslide. The pier itself is due end of next week from the fine folks at Rother Valley Optics - slight refinements on their standard offering. Last job of the day was completing the bury of the SWA network cable. Nice to be going upwards

Planning to have plenty of sockets oh yes! Todays madness was to strip the grass on the Obs plot and clear the ground work spoil - on another blazing day! Massive thanks to @Uplooker for pitching in on the spade work. It filled a 2 ton mini skip, which wasn’t in the budget, but stuff like that is easily missed least exciting photo ever: Weed matting and stones in order to cover it. If only the builders merchants sold new backs, as mine is killing me!