Observatory Build Underway

[Chris]

I've been thinking of having my obsy door sliding, glad to hear your happy with yours Gina:)

[malc-c]

Hi Gina,

Its more for security, The sheet is 2mm thick and the original panel was 590mm x 1200mm, cut to fit the 590 x 960(ish) hole. It looks OK but wouldn't take much to push out. I've also hinged it on the outside for now with normal brass hinges, but will be replacing them with some nice black wrought iron ones in keeping with the "wooden shed" approach. Good thing is the door itself is sturdier than before.

[Drbelly]

Hi Malcolm,

I'm trying to see how you went about sealing the gaps between the roofs and walls. It looks like you've used the wide DPC membrane material for this ??

I'm looking at getting my obsy clad tomorrow and will be looking at how to seal it. I don't suppose you have any photos showing the ends of the ROR and seals in more detail so that I can see how you've done it. Sorry if it's any hassle.

Cheers

[malc-c]

Chris, you are correct. The reason is because I have a slight cover by the door to act as a weather shield so needed something flexible to provide a seal and to get over this obstruction. All I did was staple it to the inside of the fascia board of the roof.

Hope the attached sketch helps

[Drbelly]

Chris, you are correct. The reason is because I have a slight cover by the door to act as a weather shield so needed something flexible to provide a seal and to get over this obstruction. All I did was staple it to the inside of the fascia board of the roof.

Hope the attached sketch helps

Many thanks Malcolm

[malc-c]

As promised I've finally got round to taking some pictures. There is still some further work to be done, like installing the power point for the kettle and sourcing suitable cover for the new storage unit, but it's very practical using an air mattress to sit on.

The glass is 4mm Toughened and it's really nice having natural light available in the day time for doing stuff other than astronomy. I'm still looking for cheap blinds to install so I can darken the room when doing solar observing, but other than that I'm really happy with the way it turned out.

[Viv]

Good one Malc

It's very home from home now !

[malc-c]

Thanks Viv, at least I now have a bed for the night if me a the wife have a falling out

[Gina]

Goodness me Malcolm, that's really deluxe Our house isn't that good I thought my warm room was pretty cosy but it's only bare floorboards except for the door mat. Your's looks really posh with carpet, skirting boards and kitchen cupboards Very nice indeed

[Ganymede12]

Great observatory! One thing though, is it safe for the kettle to be next to the EP's? Wouldn't the steam be bad for the lenses?

[Astrokev]

Very nice Malc, although I'm a little disturbed by the line of tiles above the bed. You're not thinking of installing a shower are you?!

Also intrigued by the colour scheme - is this your feminine side coming out?!

[malc-c]

Thanks for the comments

@gina - It's used as an office / warm room / study etc - so I wanted to make it as comfortable as possible. The carpet tiles add another layer of protection against the cold and deadens the sounds when walking about at 2 am - well worth doing IMO

@Ganymede - Yes that's a good point, and one I tend to address by raiding Staples for several storage boxes to give them some added protection. It may yet get moved to a shelf when the cupboards over the desk are re-worked later...

@AstroKev - Yeah... that's where the old "kitchen" area was... It will be removed as part of the re-decoration planned for later. That includes replacing the colour with something like buttermilk or magnolia to help reflect the red light. Shower...Uhmmm would be a bit cold on a november morning !

[malc-c]

The poor old HP sff PC was struggling the other night, so owing to an early birthday present for my eldest daughter her PC became free and gave me the chance of upgrading the observatory PC. Now lt has a decent motherboard, with an Pentium E5700 Dual core processor running at 3GHz, and a 1GB Nvidia graphics card, so shoud be up to guiding, imaging and streaming The sky at night via ipalyer :)

[jimao22]

Now I sow your observatory, Malcom. Is a state of the art one.

The warm room it could be a nice improvement for mine. I will think about this... 

[malc-c]

glad you found it inspiring

[mhard26339]

Malc, a total inspiration. I am planning my build now as I am back in the country in June and have a 2 month window to finish but following your build I have now finalised thew construction as a 50/50 roof as per yours instead of all moving. Once again superb build, hope mine turns out half as good.

Regards

Mike

[malc-c]

Glad you found the build inspirational. 

There are a lot of subsequent builds that have taken the concept further (Chris - "yesyes" for example) and IMO improved on the construction side of things.  One thing though, when you start your build later this summer, you must start the obligatory build thread on the forum

[mhard26339]

Hi Malcolm

From the support that you get from SL members I agree that a build thread is obligatory. Although I hope that all of the "issues" will be thought through beforehand (by reading others experiences) there is nothing wrong in asking for help and I know how much pleasure I get from reading about other peoples efforts.  Stand by in July!!!

Mike

[mhard26339]

Hi Again Malcom

Just going through your build again and interested in you sliding door; what materials did you use?, it looks good but coverage is a bit scant.

Regards

Mike

[Gina]

I too use a sliding door between scope room and warm room - great space saver

[Stevp]

Hi malcolm,

Just spent a lot more time than planned reading through your thread.

Wow!

That is a mighty fine effort! Good work.

Now I think i need to start planning my own.

[malc-c]

Hi Again Malcom

Just going through your build again and interested in you sliding door; what materials did you use?, it looks good but coverage is a bit scant.

Regards

Mike

Hi Mike,

The sliding door was made from the same studding used for the frames.  What dictated the size of the door opening was the width of the double glazing panel that came from our old back door when we replaced it.   I simple made a rectangular frame with a Tee support and "wrapped" it around the glass.  The height of the door was dictated by the use of two sets of the same rollers used for the roof, fitted top and bottom so that it ran in two short lengths of the same tracking used for the roof screwed to two lengths of studding, one top and the other bottom.  These "rails" were then screwed to the dividing wall on the warm room side with the door in place - it's  just tight enough not to bind, but also not lose enough to want to fall out.  I then made up two small frames to fit in the lower section, placed ply panels on one side, then 1" styrene insulation then another ply panel to finish it off.  I then made a ply cover top and bottom on the warm room side to cover the gaps between the top and bottom wheels and the rails.  I'm hoping to make this a little more draft proof later when funds permit, but it does OK now.

Hi malcolm,

Just spent a lot more time than planned reading through your thread.

Wow!

That is a mighty fine effort! Good work.

Now I think i need to start planning my own.

To be honest, and I've said this on so many build threads, often things pop up that you overlook in the planning stage and often its a case of winging it as you go.  Ok yes, plan the main concept, the overall size, if / where / what size warm room, roof construction, how the roof will roll, flip, open etc, but often what happens is that you come up with a better way of doing something when you put the thing together.  To be honest the way my roof fitted so that when it opened over the warm room roof the edge still allowed the drop down panel to open was worked out on the fly rather than on paper.

Another thing that is often overlooked in the planning stage is the logistics of storing all the materials, getting rid of the spoil if you dig down to make a base or foundations, and the general wear and tear on the garden a build like mine can have.  For example,  50 lengths of 5m shiplap in a hallway can mean that it's impossible for the lady of the house to keep you plied with tea and coffee, and it cost you a fortune in take-aways as she will refuse to use the kitchen as it resembles a builders merchants.  So ideally you need to use the "just in time" method, so you keep the disruption down to a minimum and keep your other half sweet and on your side

I didn't realise just how much earth I would be excavating, and hadn't really given much thought of how to dispose of the tonne of soil... I was lucky in that someone I knew needed a tonne or more of top soil / infill so that worked out well.

Start a thread with your thoughts on what you propose to build and where you intend to locate it... I'm sure you'll get lots of suggestions which will help in the planning and later in the construction...

Oh and thanks for the kind comments on my build and the thread

Edited January 24, 2014 by malc-c

[Stevp]

Thanks for the reply and for the tips. I think that hits the nail on the head as to why my ideas never get very far, too much thinking and not enough doing!

I'll be sure to start a thread and look for as much input as possible if I do ever take the plunge and get started, from reading your thread and others I can see how valuable they are to the whole process.

[malc-c]

having an observatory, given the UK climate turns observing / imaging into a brand new ball game, as you can take advantage of the gaps between showers and clouds.   It also means that sometimes you can go out, image a subject and then close the observatory down and start processing the images, where as before I wouldn't  have even set up the scope ! - Take the other night for example.  I wasn't aware of the SuperNova in M82 until a segment on BBC London news... I rushed out (why I don't know as it was unlikely to disappear !), booted up the Observatory PC, rolled the roof back, took the covers off the scopes, and within fifteen minutes of putting the key in the door was starting to stake my first sub of the galaxy.  I had already made plans to go out that night, so after taking three or four subs I parked the scope, powered the PC down and rolled back the roof.  The session lasted around an hour, by which time some cloud had started to come in from the west.  I went out, then came back a while later, and as it was reasonably clear opened up the observatory to do another imaging session on Orion

For me being a casual observer, having an observatory has made astronomy more of a pleasure.  I used to get frustrated at the time it took to set up for imaging (5 trips from the house) only to find the conditions were then changing.  And when it did stay fine I then get nagged at for waking the household up at 3am when I took the scope back in, as the tripod got knocked and sounded like mike oldfields tubular bells ! - Having an Observatory isn't always plane sailing, and also requires some upkeep to maintain it, but I'm glad I had the time and money to undertake this project as it is well worth it.

[Gina]

Quite agree Malcolm  

I find there's a few improvements I need to do before I can use mine again (unless it dries up).  All this wet weather has turned the lawn into a swamp and until I can get some sort of self draining path from the house to the obsy it's a definite hazard from slipping.  We have never had such a prolonged spell of heavy rain before and until now the drainage has been sufficient.  Now even with the odd clear night now and again I really don't want to risk it as there's nobody to come and rescue me if I damage myself.  I'm not as fit as I was and I know how easy it is to fall and break something.