Astrokev

48 minutes ago, JamesF said:

Almost certainly, Kev, but I really wanted to see what the other paint looked like

 

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!

2 hours ago, fwm891 said:

 

New sleepers have an expectancy of 10-15 yrs, I'm just about 68 now so if they rot in 15 yrs time I'm not sure I'll be too worried...

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.

3 hours ago, Rusted said:

I still think water will run under [or be wind driven under] the weather board unless you lift it on a batten and provide a [nasal] drip.

A flashing over the weather board from under the cladding would be better but expensive in ally profiles.

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. 

16 hours ago, JamesF said:

Same for the V track Gina, so it looks like it doesn't make a whole lot of difference.

James

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. 

13 minutes ago, Gina said:

I see.  Mine isn't - unless next door have their quadrillion candlepower floodlight on.  They don't usually have it on for very long and I can always ask them to turn it 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. ?

40 degrees, with the roof OPEN ?!  ?

5 hours ago, Gina said:

Garden lights along the path are a good idea for night access to an observatory.  Just small ones that are charged up in daylight and light up at night.

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

15 hours ago, nigelg said:

Nigel

Sensible thinking - thanks.

14 hours ago, JamesF said:

My intention was to remove all the screws holding down the rails for the roof and seal all the holes to stop water getting in, removing one of the rails that has leaked in the past and sealing the underside of the V channel at the same time (so water can't travel down the inside).

James

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).

On 15/04/2019 at 07:32, Dr_Ju_ju said:

A thought...  Attach a wireless keyboard\mouse and external display (larger\easier to see), to the laptop, which can be folded down and put somewhere safer... should then be less cables getting the way.....

As for the path\garden, as I was loosing valuable time mowing, twice a week, I just removed the grass and built a large fish pond and dome, then planted up the rest with dwarf species & annuals.

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!

4 hours ago, JamesF said:

 There is a noticeable "groove" worn in the grass between the workshop and observatory at the moment...

To help reduce mud, I laid a long offcut of EPDM across the lawn and along the side of the observatory. This worked well but, of course, has killed what grass there was underneath! As I want to put the paved path in a different spot, this means I'll have to re-seed this area, or convert it to stone chippings. I need to put my garden designer hat on and think it through.

Started to think about laying a path to the observatory yesterday and did a tour of local paving merchants. I still haven't finally decided what to do with the immediate surroundings of the build regarding "landscaping". I want to put stone chippings around the immediate edge to help reduce weeds, but then I also want to plant medium size bushes to the south to help shade the sun-facing wall. Didn't think it was going to be so difficult to decide how best to do this. 

And then there's the step into the observatory. Do I go for a narrow step, or one made-up of large paving slabs. Decisions, decisions!

Looking forward to my local sparks coming round in the morning; at least I can hopefully get that moving. Although I've only used the observatory a handful of times due to endless cloud, I'm already fed-up of having to trail extension cables around in the middle of the night.

20 hours ago, JamesF said:

Good idea.  I shall see if I can do the same.  I've already fitted two of mine (more of that later), but the other two I could put at an angle.

James

In my observatory, the four turnbuckles are all fitted at an angle in both N-S and E-W directions, so that they all pull against each other. I only tighten them lightly as I don't want to put undue strain on the fixings, but the roof doesn't move at all. 

22 hours ago, JamesF said:

Or perhaps it would be better (since I have always been aware that I would need to add some ventilation) to put a vent at the top of the northern roof gable, giving warm air a way to escape.  Maybe that would be more desirable than compromising the ability of the scope room to lose heat by insulating any of it.

James

I too am a little concerned about how warm the scope room will get in the sun. There's been plenty of discussion and different points of view and solutions expressed on the various threads - as with most things there's not a single solution. I've therefore opted to take a watch and wait approach. I'm expecting that I'll need to do something to deal with heat build up. I agree that it's likely most of the heating will come from the EPDM roof covering. As I mentioned in my thread, when I laid this last summer, it was too hot to stand on without shoes (I didn't want to damage the EPDM!). I've thought that I may put in vents at top and bottom, as a few folks have done. Adding fans may also be needed.

Plenty of work still to do on the observatory as the year unfolds, me thinks.

16 minutes ago, JamesF said:

https://www.sketchup.com/sketchup/2017/en/sketchupmake-2017-2-2555-90782-en-x64-exe

Any good to you?  Or

https://www.sketchup.com/sketchup/2017/en/sketchupmake-2017-3-116-90851-en-dmg

for MacOS.

great, thanks James. I'll give it a try