Astrokev

Bit more progress this afternoon after I'd finished the enjoyable weekly food shop - Cut the last piece of ply to complete the warm room, then took it all up again to cut and fit the insulation, followed by refitting the boards. Just about got it finished before the light disappeared. The top-left corner board is a slightly looser fit along the back wall so that I can easily take it up without having to remove wall panels, if needed. This is where the electrics will come into the obsy and keeping easy access is probably sensible. So, the warm room floor is now complete, bar whatever covering I decide to put on it - probably carpet tiles; I think I have enough left over from my old company factory clearance that may do the job. This is the same company that I was able to get the air-con tube for my pier, so I've done quite well from them! Next job is to take up the scope room floor and give the underside a quick coat of exterior varnish, just to help stop any rising water vapour from the ground affecting the timber, then screw it down hopefully for the final time. I'll then cut and fit the final piece to neaten around the base of the pier.

Sorry Lee, call me thick but I don't understand what you mean here

COPY?!!? Dear Sir, we don't copy, we are inspired by other builds ? Seriously though, like James and Gina, I designed my own using Sketchup. I played with lots of different ideas, but I decided from the start that it would be a ROR, for several reasons. I pretty much designed everything in mine before starting, but that's just me. I find it much better to study a 3D model and try to spot and iron-out any design problems before starting work. Some folks prefer to design on the fly. Inevitably, I cribbed, copied and stole ideas from other builds along the way, but then tweaked or added my own ideas for the details. My basic design was based largely on @yesyes build, which I liked, and the door is almost an exact copy of @RayDdoor, but there's probably loads of other builders stuff in there somewhere. I'd strongly recommend Sketchup it really helps you play with ideas and lets you visualise how the final build will look. I posted my Sketchup model further back in the thread. It's fully dimensioned. Feel free to download and do what you want with it if anything in my build inspires you! As James says, the forum is a great place to post your initial ideas and seek feedback to help you finalise what you want to do.

?? Having started my build in July 2017, I think it's pretty clear I don't rush anything ?. i was talking to my son last night - he was very diplomatic and said I'm just very thorough. Bless him.

You, James and me too. I've got loads of non-Astro jobs to do (too many to even list, and some of them very big ones!), I'm just not doing them until the obsy is finished.

Absolutely. As I say, I should be in and using it this week. I was trying to resist "moving in" before all the tail end jobs are done. The risk is, once I'm in, the final jobs may not get finished. I must resist this!

Well, I guess I had "first light" last night, but this was only with binoculars - does that count? ?. Took my first squint at comet 46P Wirtanen, and a bit of a disappointment it was too, to be honest. Mind you it was losing altitude when I went out and I was cloud dodging. I want to get the mount set up this week and dust the frac off to try some imaging before it reaches perihelion. So, I suppose I'll be officially in once the scope has seen some action Regarding remaining jobs, it's getting closer, but there seems quite a few still to tick off. Ones that spring to mind - Fit Door baton, stops & draft excluder Fit Door hook/eye catch Insulate warm room floor Paint pier Fit Floor rubber matting Fit carpet tiles in warm room Fit Roof locks Fit internal roof seals Tidy internal EPDM Fit Barge boards Fit Guttering Make Internal door Fit Window Install Electrics Fit Wall covering Paint walls Make external step & landscape Fit warm-room bench, shelving & cupboards To be fair, most of these are fairly small jobs so, apart from the electrics (and maybe the door), they shouldn't take too long. He says, foolishly. ?

Bit more progress today... I still need to finish putting the insulation under the warm room boards, but I can cut that in the observatory, so wanted to make best use of the dry weather today to cut the ply out on the decking.

Good progress Alex. I've put a left over strip of EPDM membrane across the garden between my obsy and the decking where I'm using my jigsaw. We have a very high water table at the best of times being only 100 metres from the River Great Ouse. It's certainly helping keep the mud down.

Finally managed to get some real flooring down today, in between dodging the showers. I completed a third quarter in the scope room, but forgot to take a picture. Tomorrow I'll hopefully complete the scope room and make a start on the warm room. For the gap around the pier, I will cover this with ply, leaving a narrow gap around the pier itself - all pretty standard stuff really. If I can find any varnish in my mess of a shed, I may give a quick coat to the underside of the ply to help resist rising moisture from the ground. I have to say, it feels absolutely fantastic to be able to walk around in the scope room (well, around half of it anyway) without falling down holes or balancing on joists. Although the floor level is only slightly above the height of the joists, it also feels different now that I'm able to stand, more or less, on the finished level and get a feel for the final height of the pier and the walls.

Had a text last night to say my Wickes delivery of 4x8' ply sheets was due to arrive between 1PM and 6PM today. Experience, and the laws according to Mr. Sod, tell us that this really means 5.59PM, right? Well, on this occasion - wrong. Knock on the door at 1.04PM ? . Wickes have gone up in my estimation! Ironically, I was busy this afternoon so couldn't make a start on the floor, but hope to be getting the saw out tomorrow.

Yeah, I'm really going to miss skinning my shins and ankles ?

No progress over the last couple of days as I've been busy doing other things, and the weather has been pretty lousy. However, tomorrow the ply and insulation panels for the floor should be delivered so, weather permitting, I can start to cut and fit the floor. My original intention was to cover the scope room using only two 18mm ply panels. However, now I'm thinking about it, I think it could be tricky to get the dimensions exactly right. The width and length are OK in themselves, but the corners will only have to be out of square by a tiny amount and the deviation will be magnified over the length of the board resulting in it not fitting. I need to think about the best approach some more. Maybe dividing the floor into 4 quarters and fitting 4 panels would make things easier, as I can then put each piece in place and measure and mark-up in situ rather than having to do this outside the obsy. Busy weekend ahead me thinks. The other thing I've started thinking about is the design and layout of the electrics. I may post another thread to get people's ideas and opinions, as this may hit a wider audience.

You know it makes sense ?

Managed to find a couple of hours today.... Finished trimming the double-fin rain deflector, which is now deficient to the tune of one fin, to allow it to fit on the bottom rail of the door ?. To allow the door to open as wide as possible I decided to round off the right corner so it wouldn't foul the door frame. The door doesn't quite open flat against the wall - the picture below shows it opened to it's maximum without fouling the frame. At some point I will put a catch on the wall to hold it at that angle should I need to open it wide, but to be honest I can't see why I'd need to open it this wide at all; the catch will mainly prevent it being knocked accidentally, and gouging the frame. Both drip bars are only screwed in temporarily at the moment. When (if) we ever get a dry day again, I'll take them off and put a bead of silicone sealant behind the bars to make the seals watertight. I also want to put sealant along the bottom edge of the door where the cladding meets the bottom rail. This looks like rain can collect and soak into the end-grain, so want to reduce that risk as much as possible. In preparation for putting the floor down, I also nailed some supports to the joists in the warm room. These will hold-up the insulation panels. I'm waiting for more insulation board to be delivered, but I had a bit left over from doing the warm room roof so cut and installed one panel. This is a fairly loose fit so I can get it out easily. I will put a small hatch in this corner when I put the floor boarding down, so I can access the ground to allow me to bring in the power supply when I get round to that. With hindsight I maybe should've installed this earlier on, but it's not a problem to retro-fit it, so long as I can get under the floor. Oh yes - and everything was absolutely dripping as the overnight frost thawed. Not very pleasant to work in. I guess I'm a fair-weather DIY-er. ?

Ooh, that sounds good. I must have a search. The likelihood of me finding one to match the hole I've left is slim, but I guess I could modify the studding if necessary. Thanks

Not sure about James', but my window will go between the warm and scope room so I can keep an eye on the scope while keeping warm. A window on an outside wall is obviously risky. Having said that, isn't your door glazed Lee?

Amazon

Brilliant. The children must've loved that (and maybe still do).

I was surprised to see blue sky today (well first thing anyway). In between other jobs, I've started to put the drip bars up. The one above the door was straight forward, although it's a very snug fit. The 2-fin bar I bought for below the door needed to be modified, as I expected, as it's a tad too high. So, I've cut the top fin off and am currently tidying up the cut edge. If the weather gods smile on me tomorrow I hope to get it screwed in place then. I also put bricks on top of the wire mesh under the floor, to stop it lifting, or being lifted ? Not a huge amount done, but it's all forward moving and slowly ticking things off the list, which is the main thing.

This is looking fantastic James. The first picture makes it look more like a cathedral than an observatory ? . I notice you have a window waiting patiently for installation. That's something I still need to source. With hindsight I should've bought the window before putting the studding up, but hey ho. Wishing you dry weather for the next week.

Earliest delivery slot for the floor boarding is next Friday, which is disappointing. Mind you, with the weather being what it is at the moment I doubt I'd get much of a clear spell to cut it to size. Quite a few other jobs I can be getting on with though, if I get time in the next few days.

But then that was your design and plan and, as you said earlier, yours blends into the surroundings thereby avoiding unwanted attention. The best observatory is the one that does it's job and gets used, it doesn't really matter a hoot what it looks like. And yours is well fit for purpose and gets well used. ? ?

Ah yes, the law of thermodynamics. Hadn't thought of it in that way. Excellent.

Yes, I'm sure it would have been fine, but it was easy and inexpensive to do so won't do any harm ? . By the sound of it, in your obsy, perhaps any seedlings drown before they can flourish ?