Astrokev

Step 1 - paint it green ?

The OP said it may not be suitable for white domes

Amazing difference

Foam floor tiles ordered I need to paint the pier before I lay them though. It's warm enough this week for painting, so hope to do this in the next few days. I also ought to buy, cut and fit the internal door frame, as I'll probably have to fit the tiles around this.

As mentioned in a previous post, I've left a gap under the wall panels to allow me to lift the floor panels in the future should I need to do this. I can use this "hidden" area underneath the wall panels as an expansion zone ?

Buying tiles is the next of the seemingly endless purchases I need to make. Haven't finalised which supplier to use yet - one of the many vendors on EB I suspect. Maybe I can do that tonight. Lovely clear night tonight, but the Moon is so close to full that I can't be bothered to set stuff up.

Yep, they look good but bit pricey ?

Was out in the observatory last night, enjoying a wobbly Moon. Idiot me only goes and drops an eyepiece on the ply floor. This suggests a change of priority and maybe I should push the foam tiled floor up the list! The risks of an operational, but unfinished, observatory ?

Yes, that's a good idea. The 3 adapter rods being fixed to the bottom plate with only a single nut on each side is, theoretically at least, a potential point of flex. In practice it may be fine, but if it were me, I would add something to stiffen this up as you suggest. For my pier I designed the height so that the adapter plate was as close as possible to the top of the pier. The factors affecting the pier height were the desired height of the eyepiece, and the height of the walls to ensure the roof would close without fouling the scope. The only reason there's a gap is to access the bolt holding the mount to the adapter plate, to help with azimuth adjustment. In the unlikely event that I upgrade my mount, I can simply either replace the plate or drill extra holes in it to fit the requirements of any new adapter or mount head. That's the theory anyway ?

Yep, that's fair I s'pose ?

Good to see it coming together Looking at the design of the studding, I can't help wonder why you chose to have a separate plate between the pier and the mount adapter. I think you could have embedded the studding from the adapter straight into the concrete, without the need to have a plate and 4 extra lengths of studding. This is basically the design I used for mine. I bent the conduit in the pier through 90' to bring the opening to the side of the pier instead of on the top. I realise this is a bit late to suggest this now (!). I'm just curious why you chose to do it this way? I'm sure your design will work fine, it just seems a lot of extra effort!

Well, I now have a window . Next job is to make the door between the two rooms...... or, start to design fitting ventilation vents in the warm room...… or, paint the pier..... or put some carpet tiles down in the warm room. The list is thankfully getting a bit smaller at long last

Good to see you posting again James. I was beginning to think you'd sold your scopes and turned your observatory into a beer shack extension

Great stuff. I like the pano !

The Moon looked very tempting last night, so I decided to set up my scopes. This meant emptying the scope room of tools and general debris, as I could hardly get in it, and putting the NEQ6 back on the pier. Fortunately, the warm room makes an excellent store area ?. So, after finishing the lining out this morning, I eventually made it to the DIY emporium and picked up a few lengths of timber to frame the window. Didn't have time to finish it though - I really don't know where the afternoon went today - so I'll finish the window off tomorrow, then it's time to start on the internal door.

I had the same plan to run data and power through a single conduit for my pier (similar pier to yours). I was recommended not to run power through the same conduit as data as this could risk signal interference. Please don't think I'm preaching here, as I'm no expert, but several folks said the same thing so maybe this is something to consider before you're too committed? Following the advice I installed a second conduit for data.

Looking good. I presume the white pipe is a cable conduit. What cables d'you plan to route through this?

Well, finished lining out both rooms. Glad to get that completed. Going to try and get the window in this afternoon, although that requires yet another trip to the DIY store....

Few more bits of ply put up this afternoon - no pics taken though. Didn't spend long out there, partly because I've run out of insulation, and partly because I need to prepare an early dinner this evening. We're off to see Prof Brian Cox tonight in Peterborough. Woo-hoo! ?

That would be plenty I think. I used 12mm stainless. I think I got 1m lengths and cut them in 2, so probably sunk about 400 into the concrete but I think this was excessive. It's absolutely solid.

After a few days off whilst travelling down in the west country, a few more exciting pictures of plywood lining in the warm room! Although I only had a small amount of time this afternoon, it feels good to be progressing with the build once more...

Thanks Alex for the good explanation. Just thought it'd be helpful to hear your approach as we've all seen issues of one sort or another with water ingress during our builds, and anything we can glean from each other has to be good ?

Got it, thanks. How have you dealt with the gap at the front, and at the overlap with the fixed roof?

Hi Alex. Just looking back through your thread. What have you done to cover or seal the sides of the roof, and the overlap between the rolling and fixed roof (when the roof is closed) to help keep wind and rain out? This isn't very easy to see in the pictures and I can't find any description of how you've done this. Cheers

Visiting my daughter in Cornwall at the moment, and enjoying the Falmouth rain. Not much activity on the observatory this weekend then!