Astrokev

Looking excellent Alex. Shelving looks very professional - is this in the warm or scope room? I haven't given too much thought to shelving for equipment, other than recognising that I probably need some. Once I've got the electrics in, I'll see how best to use the space I think.

Some good progress James. Pier looks great. I assume that’s the lavender cupcake in the warm room? Looks more pink on my phone....Suits you Sir!

I think I'll have to get myself a couple of the temp/RH displays. My experience of humidity sensors at work was that they require periodic calibration, but I suppose for the accuracy we need for observatory use, they should be fine.

Good idea, but I'd need to plant some grass seed first! ?

I can understand that. Lavender Cupcake has a certain appeal!

Been suffering blocked sinuses over the last several days so haven’t felt like doing much at all. Bit of a waste of the fantastic weather over Easter, but when you feel like your head’s about to explode, all you really want to do is curl up in a ball. Starting to feel more human again now so hopefully will be able to at least start the path etc!

Sounds like a plan James, but wouldn’t it have been easier to paint the ceiling first? You’ll now have to be careful you don’t drip or splash ceiling paint down the walls!

I guess that makes sense ??

Here are a few pics from my build thread which show more clearly what I was trying to describe above. All joists around the edges rest on EPDM acting as a DPC.

I am tending to agree. With time I think water will soak into the weatherboard, or seep underneath it by capillary action, and have an unimpeded route to both the wall linings and the floor. In my build, I essentially positioned the wall to lie above the edge of the foundation concrete (resting on joists running around the edge of the structure. I used EPDM rubber as a barrier between joists and foundations). The wall membrane covering wall and joists then terminates below the top of the foundation concrete. Water running down the cladding simply drips off onto the floor. Your final design with the DPC looks more water tight, but the sleeper will still be sitting in a pool of water.

Yep, same with mine.

Agree with James’ comments. I too went for V profile track and wheels and have no complaints. I’m not sure what the functional difference is between V and round section, but I agree that round may suffer a little more friction due to extra area of contact. Is there a reason you’ve gone for round?

With the vagaries of uk forecasting, I’d be prepared for anything!

Continues to look great James. I guess it’s a good feeling to get that messy job ticked off.

I guess the difference is, I don't live in the middle of Devon! My neighbour has a similar security light, that I'm sure could be seen from low earth orbit. He has it angled such that it fully illuminates a pine tree to the south-west that's taller than my house, and the tops of my house's gable ends. The problem is, whilst being a nice chap, he's outside in his drive until midnight every night, working on his endless outdoor projects, which sets off the light. I think he's allergic to being indoors. Ridiculous I politely spoke to him about it a few days ago and he said he would look at lowering the angle, but hasn't done so yet. ?

How d'you plan to attach the steel tube to the plate?

40 degrees, with the roof OPEN ?! ?

Thanks for the good suggestions. My garden is fairly dark, but probably has enough light (regrettably) to see the path and steps!

Sensible thinking - thanks.

Hmm, thinking on this, I realise I hadn't considered this. Perhaps I should remove the screws holding the rail down and similarly add sealant to resist water getting in. Don't really want my rails rotting in a few years. Fortunately there are only half a dozen or so in the rail section that is open to the elements. I'm not too worried by the rail covered by the roof when it's closed. Another thing to add to the list

Currently trying to design a path and steps into the observatory. On the face of it, this seems straight forward enough, but need to make decisions on whether to have one step or two, and how wide to make them and the path. Balancing off cost vs functionality. May be brave tomorrow and see whether the local stores or garden centres have what I need. And there was me thinking I’d seen the last of mixing concrete/mortar when I finished the foundations. As an aside, the inside of the scope room was very warm this afternoon. Not worryingly so, but I have some concern that heat build-up in summer may be too great. I therefore need to start thinking about fitting ventilation vents in the rolling roof I think.

Looking fabulous James. I still need to pull my finger out and make a final decision on LED strips.

My warm room carpet tiles were a freebie from an ex-company, so it was a no-brainer to use them. Being office tiles, they’re as tough as they come and won’t show any wear from the chair. The scope room may be a different matter though!

Had a meeting with the electrician buddy this morning. I don't need to bury the cable in a trench, which is great There's a bit of prep work I need to do but the electrics should go in around 4-5 weeks (he's obviously a busy man). Thanks Julian. Yes, I need to give a bit of thought to the cabling - some good ideas there for me to think about. As for the grass, I already have a largish pond, but will definitely be doing some more planting around the obsy

The other thing I've started to realise whilst using the scope room is that there isn't as much space as I thought. The shelving, although proving very useful, eats into the room and I have to be a little careful moving around the scope. This is probably made worse by me currently having the laptop in the scope room. This sits on a small stool and I'm using the warm room office chair to park myself. Until I can get the electrics sorted I also have cabling trailing around the floor, which doesn't help. Whilst I can work around it, the desk chair always seems to be in the wrong place! So, the solution is to either move the laptop into the warm room (which is the plan once all the electrics are finished), put the laptop on the shelving (I would need to make a wider support for it, as it doesn't currently fit), or make/buy the serving trolley idea mentioned earlier in the thread, to put the laptop on, so I can move it around when needed. It's only when you start using the observatory (or anything else for that matter) that you become aware of how well it works. I clearly still need to optimise the space!