Swoop1

That must have been one hell of a blow going on there!

What are your mounts fixed on Charl? Alos, what is yoyr floor- wood, concrete? I'm asking as your images always have a sharpness that I don't associate with being on a wooden floor.

Yet more fantastic imaging!

Oh to have a permanant set up in an obsy. And a horizon🤦‍♂️

Did your damaged obsy have shackles or locking bolts to keep the roof in place?

🤣 Every big spider that takes up residence in my house is christened Boris by my wife and I!

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and, as my obsy is just a scruffy patch of back garden lawn, to my eye, any obsy building is an absolute gem.

Lovely images there Steve

I want one of those!

Here is mine. The red lines indicate locations of street lights or properties with permanantly illuminated insecurity lights. The green line is roughly South. The Blue line roughly aligns with Polaris. If I were to move to the oter side of the garden, I would open up my eastern horizon but loose a lot of South/ South West. The East/ North East is generally quite hazy due to London and High Wycombe North East South/South West

Nice image. This is the type of image that has resulted in a C9.25 being placed at the top of the 'wish list'.

Thanks for yoursuggestions folks. Solar is something I engage in in a basic, white light fashion, though ultimately I would like to take it further. I am a mathamatical dolt and not academic so projects that go too far down the science and maths/ physics path are beyond my capabilities. I partake of the simple joy of observing and imaging so things like the TLP project could be right up my street.

Due to the circumstances of my location and schedule limitations, I am contemplating specialising in Lunar and possibly Planetary observing/ imaging. My garden is quite badly affected by light pollution caused by nearby street lighting and insecurity lighting. Also relatively recent development work has fairly killed my southern horizon. I would love to have a pier as this would solve time issues but for the deep sky stuff, i'm not sure it would be worthwhile. I know planetary is a bit meh at the moment but the moon is always cooperative in position etc. What projects could I engage in to spice up my sessions? Thanks Matt

For me to be able to see it like the picture, i would need a free ride from NASA!

I envy your skill and 'penmanship' Achim. A wonderful sketch.

That is quite a clever rotation method and, as a bike shop droid, Iove the crank repurposing😀

I think in a lot of cases, it is to reduce the amount of concrete needed to be mixed. when you are in the building trade like you are, access to mechanical mixing is probably easier tht for mere mortal like me. If I were to build an obsy, or even just install a pier, mixing would be by hand.

James, Just a thought as I know you have purchased the drag strap (ooh er missus!) for the end flap but, how about a fashioning a socket in the top middle of the flap which you can shove the end of a broom handle of other appropriate legth of material when closing so that you just lean on and lever the flap into a managable position?

That last photo looks a bit like an in progress steampunk nuclear reactor!

Whatever you do, you've got this far on your build- you'll think of something👍

Foiled! Screw through the adapter and against the pier top to tension?

Is there clearance underneath to tighten a nut against the bottom of the plate to put the tension into the pin you need?

What you need is one of those new fangled anti gravity widgets to stick to the OTA. Makes it float exactly where you want it. An alternative is to cap the open end of a Newt, or install a valve into the tube of a refractor, Schmidtt etc and fill it with helium......... I'll grab my coat on the way out.

Well done to all!