Astrokev

11 hours ago, Alan White said:

Kev

Digging for a long hedge to screen some lights that still shine in from next door over my observing pad.

 

I hope it's a quick growing hedge! Good luck. 

Ouch!

12 hours ago, Alan White said:

That colour looks nice Kev.
The roof is all coming together well too.
 

Thanks Alan. 

Eager to crack on, but the darned weather is holding me back for the next few days. Hoping to get the roof boards and EPDM on this week if the rain lets up. 

The western gable-end was fitted as planned today. Bit tricky getting decent images when your head is stuck in a hedge!

Also sorted through the remaining cladding to decide which bits to use for the roof and the main door; starting to scrape the barrel a bit now I'm down to the last few lengths. Then, hatches battened down for tomorrow - strong wind and rain in the forecast (which probably means it'll be a beautiful day).

I'm off to the International Astronomy Show tomorrow, so the tarp will have to look after itself for a day.

I finished the west gable timber frame this evening (sorry no pics, but looks like the east gable frame, surprisingly!). This will go up tomorrow, and if time permits I'll start cutting the cladding.

I need to get the tarps on the roof again though - Friday and Saturday don't look too favourable weather-wise ? 

I used 11mm OSB for my warm room with EPDM on top. Easy to work with and well strong enough to stand on, although the ceiling rafters were on quite narrow spacings which helped. EPDM is certainly heavy though.

I'm hoping to put the roof on my scope room next week if the weather holds through the week, using the same materials. Knowing that my time estimates are always way off, I will no doubt therefore be doing it the week after next! It will be interesting to see how I get on. Not looking forward to sticking down the EPDM on such a big area as the working time is quite short, especially in warm weather.

I managed to complete the eastern gable-end today as hoped. Actually went better than I thought, with no further cutting of the timbers proving necessary!

Also started on the western gable-end, which is about half finished. Time tomorrow will be short as I'm on grandson-sitting duty, but I'll try and make some progress.

Here are a bunch of pictures, some in-progress shots and a few of the completed gable-end. I'll put the cladding up when I've finished the other gable-end, but before I put the main roof sheets on.

13 minutes ago, Gina said:

Photos of the latches on the observatory.

 

Thanks Gina, that's very helpful. I'll do a search!

Yes, I still need to think of how to bolt the roof down when it's closed. For me the anti-lift system is more to keep wind, rain and some wildlife out of the obsy. In the strongest gales I would worry that this wouldn't stop the roof lifting and being damaged, so I need some lock-down mechanism. I guess I'm getting close to needing this pretty soon now so need to get thinking of what to get!

5 minutes ago, Gina said:

I like your anti-lift system Kev.  I would have done the same when I built mine if I'd thought of it!  Would have saved retrieving the roof from the fence 20 yards away and getting my neighbours to put it back on the main body of the observatory after I had repaired it.  Three strong young men did the job.

Thanks Gina. Yes I remember your "roof incident". Traumatic at the time but thankfully distant memories now I imagine.

21 hours ago, wimvb said:

Why not just open the roof then? That's the best and cheapest ventilation you can get. A warm day is most likely a sunny summerday anyway.

Thanks Wim. Yes, that would make sense !

Well, perhaps predictably, I didn't get as much done today as I'd hoped. Doing the weekly food shop this morning didn't help!

Anyways, this afternoon I managed to more or less complete the east roof gable end. This is currently drying off after a liberal coating of preservative, before I screw it into final position.

Pictures show the horizontal beam in-situ before I trimmed down the vertical supports, and shows the gap between roof-rail / wall, which is approx 1cm, and the final assembly on the grass after applying preservative. I'll attach the gable-end to the roof tomorrow, and then start playing with cladding. If it all fits without me having to trim the odd bit of timber I'll be amazed!

22 hours ago, Gina said:

Can't remember how I did mine now but it will be in one of my observatory building threads - go back around 6 years or so...

Thanks Gina. I know what the finished build will look like and in this sense I know what to do. I've just been struggling to know how to construct it - it's been a bit like a Chinese puzzle, trying to figure out which bit to do first!

Made a start on the garden side of the roof this afternoon. Spent most of the time figuring out how to do it. I knew this would be fiddly when I designed the roof in SketchUp (see screenshot below), but thought I could figure it out. The difficulty is that to screw the horizontal beam (that will sit under the roof rail) to the vertical support timber requires me to take the structure off the roof (as I want to screw it from the inner face and not the outer face), but it's then difficult to know exactly where to drill to get it accurate. Finally managed it. Then, trying to re-attach the vertical support to the end of the roof beam without someone holding the other end of the 2.5m length of timber was also tricky. A few more hands would have been useful! Finally managed it by using wire loops hanging off the roof to temporarily support one end while I attached the other, and going up and down step ladders a gazillion times. Got there in the end but I'm sure there must be an easier way. I may rethink the approach before I do the opposite side.

Anyway, just a few pics showing the basic arrangement before I attached the horizontal beam to the vertical supports. Assuming I can get this side finished tomorrow, I'll post more pics then.

EDIT - to try and correlate the pics with the SketchUp model more clearly, I changed the design during the build and decided to put the end vertical supports on the inner side of the roof beams rather than on the outer side of the beams. The vertical supports are also much longer than shown in the model; I'll trim them to the correct length later on.

Well, decision made and yesterday I repainted (after a couple of days of sanding and prep) the observatory.

Much happier with the new colour, which blends into the garden much better. The decision was always a compromise; the olive green will get warmer than white / off-white, but from an astronomical viewpoint I'm not too concerned. The roll-off roof should allow heat to dissipate very quickly. If the temp gets too warm inside during the day then I may add some additional ventilation. I'll cross that bridge if/when I come to it.

So, now I can crack on with finishing the roof; once the rain stops that is!

EDIT - the paint was still drying on the wall to the right of the door which is why it looks a bit patchy!

.... and the problem is?

11 minutes ago, JamesF said:

There's room to breathe, certainly

It's about 3.5 acres in all -- the remains of a farm that was broken up in the mid 1980s.

James

Wow, sounds great. I wish I had that sort of space!

It's looking great James. Can't wait to see it on the observatory.

Also like the amount of ground you seem to have there. Very spacious and attractive!

1 hour ago, saac said:

Kev I should add , I really enjoyed your build you have a cracking obsy there. I think everybody will tell you the thing that makes the biggest change is having a permanent setup. When I did mine a few years back I could not resist coming home from work and opening the roof just for the sake of it - I was like the instructor from the movie The Karate Kid - roof open - roof closed, wax on - wax off    I still catch myself opening the roof during the day time, big smile on face, just because I can.

JIm  

 

 

Thanks Jim.

Yeah, I too open the roof and smile.... and the roof doesn't even have boards or rubber on it yet!  I just like the way it rolls!  Think how great it's going to feel when the roof is actually finished! ?

12 minutes ago, saac said:

 

That's the irony , i'll be swapping time for less purchase power    I better start saving for that 10 micron mount , it won't be getting bought in retirement  

Jim 

Yep, those 10 micron mounts look incredible. Drooled all over one at the Kelling Heath star party. The mount was around 12K as far as I recall, but if you wanted counterweights (couldn't figure out why you would NOT want counterweights!) that was an extra 3K !

I think one thing that helps us maximise the return on investment is to have a wide range of interests within the hobby. 

For myself, historically I've mainly been a visual observer of moon and planets. My imaging efforts were using slide film and home development using Kodak Technical Pan 2415. We're talking the 80's here, before the days of digital imaging! Great fun!

After a few fallow years, my interest in the hobby is now re-energised and, in addition to visual solar system observing, which I still love, I can also enjoy the frustration that is digital imaging of planets, moon, sun and DSO. 

For me, I think the trick is to enjoy variety. For short observing windows that may not be long enough to get the imaging gear setup, do some visual observing. This helps get the most out of the hobby. 

It obviously helps hugely that, having taken early retirement, every night (pretty much) is a weekend!

6 hours ago, souls33k3r said:

This is coming along nicely mate.

Have you been keeping track of your spends so far?

6 minutes ago, souls33k3r said:

Will not dwell in to the details of the major loss in life you've experience because i'm afraid i know where this might lead your mind to. My prayers are with you on that my friend and lots of good wishes on your way.

I'm glad you've found something to keep your mind occupied with.

You're not the only sad person around, i'm in the same camp

Mind if i ask, how much so far?

Thanks, I appreciate your kind words ? .

Regarding cost - happy to share. Total for just the shed is £2.5K. This includes all roofing materials which I've still to put on. Only bits left to buy are floor sheets, internal ply for the walls, and locks etc. 

Including pier and tool hire (concrete mixer) and other sundries it just tips £3K..

That said, I like to think that I've built a solid structure that will outlast me! It's been an interesting project and I've learned a lot, but I've no desire to make another!

6 hours ago, souls33k3r said:

This is coming along nicely mate.

Have you been keeping track of your spends so far?

Yep. All in a big spreadsheet and pivot table - I'm sad like that ?

Doesnt make pleasant reading ? But at least the cost has been spread over the last year. Plus, I decided to build my own obsy as a project to keep me focussed after going through a major loss in my life, and not to save money, so the cost is pretty irrelevant. 

Im happy with how it's turning out, but looking forward to finishing now. It's been a long haul!

2 hours ago, Alan White said:

An interesting indicator experiment Kev.
But as Wim says, what was the temp at the back of the board and was the sample too small?

I would stick with the existing colour and accent the edges with something else myself, 
but then again it's not my observatory or garden and I don't have to look at it everyday.

 

Thanks Alan. 

Yes, it was a quick and dirty experiment. The difference in temp was very obvious just by placing my palm on the boards. 

Fir interest I may check the temp on the back of the boards if the Sun ever shines again  

If I was still in work I could have borrowed a multi channel recorder probe and recorded the temp on all surfaces simultaneously against time. This would have been really interesting to compare and contrast rate of temp change under different conditions. Or is this taking things a bit far ?

Ive already nearly finished sanding the walls so I'm committed to repainting it. 

1 hour ago, Gina said:

I have a green observatory and though it warms up inside with the roof closed, it soon cools down again once the roof is open.  I haven't found a problem with overheating.

 

Thanks Gina. To be honest I'm more concerned about the timbers warping and gaps developing between the boards. That said, my tool shed is painted dark brown and seems ok. The risk may be more to do with the quality of timber and not what paint colour I slap on it. 

The rubber roof is likely to be the main contributor to interior heat. If this gets too hot I could always insulate the roof and/or install fan ventilation.