Observatory Question.

[skippyinspace]

All hopefully this isnt in the wrong section but looking for some help, I'm in the proccess of selling some land which will fund my observatory, I have a Pier on a plyinth allready in place.

I was going to go down the DIY route but Father in law is an engineer and just wanted to over engineer everything, Found some great roller from Coeburn but are far too expensive for the project.

I had decided on an Alexanders ROR but the recent comments are putting me of and being in the North of Scotland I can see I would be put back for closer jobs.

Looked at the Taylors website and think the roof is kust a bit too high.

So next choice is either the Pulsar dome or the pulsar 2.2m OBS

Any thoughts, Any issues?

Or should I go for a POD

Is there anuything else under the £3K mark?

My Scope is a 8" Newtonian.

All help is appriciated.

Thanks

[Earl]

A Pod would be a good call, all you need to do is prepare the base area, assemble tweak Job done, quite a few members have them here.

[steppenwolf]

The Pulsar is excellent, I have the 2.1m version (superseded by the 2.2!). The only grumble I have about mine is that the 0.5 metre aperture can be a little tight at some orientations of the imaging and guide 'scopes but the plus sides of a dome over a R off R and a Pod are that the dome protects you far better from extraneous light, wind and dew - I have never had dew form on my optics when imaging from the dome!

Highly recommended.

[malc-c]

Is there anuything else under the £3K mark?

My Scope is a 8" Newtonian.

All help is appriciated.

Thanks

Take a look through this section. There are loads of self builds that will take an 8" scope, look like a shed so won't draw as much attention as a Dome will, and with a budget of £3K will more than cover everything including kitting out a warm room.

Here are some examples

Here's mine http://stargazerslounge.com/diy-observatories/140015-observatory-build-underway.html

This is Wayne's build, which was the inspiration behind my one project http://stargazerslounge.com/diy-observatories/103639-wetherview-diy-obsy-build-begins.html

There are others too... most follow a similar design. There is no need to over-engineer things, but sticking to standard building practices such as 6" x 2" joists (if suspended), Studwork at 16" centres, and damp proof membranes in the foundations all work. Cost wise, my build came out at around £1800 for materials, and most were purchased from one of the big DIY chains, but could be sourced cheaper from a suitable builders merchants

Hope that helps.

[skippyinspace]

Thanks for the advice, heading towards a pulsar option, but transport is the killer again. trying to make up my mind if its best to go for the whole hog rather than the DIY or the dome on a shed option as it might be false economy in the long run.

As for the diy ror I watched my Father in law replace a wooden sliding garage door at our property he did a fantastic job but took nearly 2 months to do it, so a skyshed which I do have the plans for would probbly take 6 months of nearly full time work.

[Ericgraham]

It doesn't have to take that long. Older people tend to work slower, but maybe do a better job. I know I've slowed down a lot- I just spent a year setting up a workshop and the telescope is still just a chunk of quartz sitting on a shelf.

Eric

[malc-c]

A self build can take weeks to months to complete. I had booked time off around some bank holidays so the main build was complete in two weeks, with around a week or so before hand laying footings and the like. I probably put in around 300 hours from start to finish, plus I had some help from my son in clearing the spoil and moving materials for me. There are builds going on at the moment that have been taking months to get to the stage they are at now.. but that doesn't matter, these things are personal. Its a custom project, often built without full documentation just some sketches, and its down to the individual's own apt for DIY.

The alternative is commercial products... at the moment Nick from Alexanders Observatories appears to be failing to respond to calls from several customers who have been waiting months for their orders, so I wouldn't recommend that route. An alternative is the POD as you've already seen. What ever route you go down having an observatory gives this hobby another dimension

[Gina]

Months is right! Started my ground preparation on 24th May this year and it will be well into November before it's finished (or may be later). But mine is quite big and complicated with warm room as well as observatory. And there's just me doing it.

[fwm891]

An obsy makes a great difference whether you have good skies with clear horizons or an urban back garden with a view upwards.

It becomes a very personal space. You can build it as simply or complex as you like. I built mine from sheets of sheathing ply with 3x2 stiffeners bolted together in sections: http://stargazerslounge.com/diy-observatories/147917-fitzroy-observatory-shed.html.

(I have had a tidy since these were taken!)

Which ever way you go try and visit someone who has either purchased the obsy your interested in, or has built one similar to your needs.

[pmlogg]

I have a 2.7m Pulsar that I was their demo model so it was around 1/3 cheaper. I was going to go for a 2.2m model but feared it would be a bit tight - other users could better comment on the room in the 2.2m version.

It was delivered in a large van which I helped unload. I opted to self-assemble and it wasn't difficult. I only had to use my son's help to support the dome pieces during assembly and it then it took 3 of us to lift the dome onto the walls.

When working out the overall cost you will need to factor in the base, decking flooring, an electrical supply and fittings. I had the electrics done by an electrician, running armoured cabling in a trench under the base from the house. The IP rated boxes etc. I sourced myself but the total cost just the electrician was not insignificant. You can save on that if you can find an electrician willing to check and certify a DIY job but if the cable is running underground and under concrete it has to be right first time.

Going back to flooring doing the decking took quite a lot of effort but I would stongly recommend it as running cables under it avoids most of the mess I used to have aaround the mount outdoors, it's a lot warmer on the feet and its even comfortable to sit on if you need to get really low to look at the back of a DSLR screen.

On cost I could have saved money by undertaking a complete DIY build and it would have been a very satisfying achievement but I knew that I didn't have the time. In addition to the flooring, figuring out how to mount all the electrical boxes and light fittings took quite a while. That's the downside of a pre-fab fiberglass structure with a metal pipe pier - no flat surfaces to bolt anything to and thin walls!

I am very pleased with the final result. It allows a very rapid set up and close down with the advantage of being able to just close up if a rain shower comes over, and then open up again. It is very effective at cutting out spurious light and most of the wind too.

The Pod, which I also seriously considered, is for better or worse a much more open structure. The better is primarily a nice wide view of the night sky rather than a view through a slit. The worse is less protection. The accessory 'Pod Visor' makes it more like a conventional dome.

I was a bit worried about the Pod's interior space although it is a bit larger than the 2.2m Pulsar. I see that they are working on a version with 1.5x the diameter of the current model - a pretty big structure. it's not to be available until sometime in 2012. Also it is bound to be a lot more expensive due to the size and because it's to be fully motorised.

[skippyinspace]

Some good info here.

As for electricity I was getting the house and out buildings rewired which happened to involve getting an overhead cable removed and placed under ground.

This cable now runs via where the Observatory is going to go, As it was only about 2m more cable if that, It goes into a box that will turn into a fuse box when the obs is built and as part of the rewire the electrics for the Obs was included.

Now the new question.

I allready have a pier mounted on 3 ft of concreate in the ground. I have cleared the 2.5m of ground. Due to work constraints I dont have the time to level the ground off and do the base, So I'm getting some one to quote to do the shed base. The question is should a gap be left around the concreate pier base or should the base be concreated right up to the pier base?

Thanks

Ian

[red dwalf]

the idea is to isolate the pier from any other objects, more so for imagers as they don`t want any vibrations, but to me if the base is thich enough nothing should move it unless you start jumping around, but leave a small gap around the pier when laying wooden flooring.

[Gina]

If you're having a concrete base for the shed then leave a gap around the pier base. This can be filled with polystyrene foam blocks which are resilient enough not to transmit vibrations. And yes, if you have a suspended wooden floor, again leave a gap around the pier. Even if you don't expect to do imaging it's best to be prepared at this stage as it won't be practical to alter it later.

[skippyinspace]

That sort of confirmed what I thought, Now just the funny looks when I tell the builder not to concreate up to the concreate thats allready there! Well actually the wife is going to tell them.

Though I'm not too sure if she will, She got a lecture earlier in the week from a guy who I got out to re fix an Ham radio antenna of mine, Who went on about how poor my soldering was on the connectors (I know my soldering is poors) so thats why I bought patch cables from a well known Ham radio supply company, So it was there soldering not mine that was poor but I know I'm tarred with that brush now.

Ok next question.

Should I go for a colour observatory, Think the white is a bit bright and the house is slowly having its wood work painted green, So should I go green or is that going to cause issues.

Thanks

Ian

[Gina]

I'm going green - well most of it is already green My obsy shed is in a rural setting so green fits in well.

[skippyinspace]

Interestingly just as I have pretty much decided on a pulsar dome 2.2m I recieve an email from Alexanders confirming some prices from last year.

so need to make descion.

[laser_jock99]

Should I go for a colour observatory, Think the white is a bit bright and the house is slowly having its wood work painted green, So should I go green or is that going to cause issues.

Thanks

Ian

I went for green / wood finish too on my roll off shed. I think a bright white obsy dome in my area would be an obvious thieves target.

[skippyinspace]

Interestingly we were broken into while we were away at new year. I'm in a rural area but have neighbours within 20 and 70m or so.

The profinity filter inset here only smashed the conservatory and took the TV which could just been seen in the window and an xbox, They didnt try to get into the main house or garage/outbuildings.

Which has brought up an interesting debate with the wife.

Observatory - Telescope - hard to flog, if lucky a computer.

Shed - tools, and other items that are useful to the thief, for later or to use to break into the main property or to move on.

I know the argument will go but a dome will show wealth, when you live in an area that is known as being expensive, I dont think it would make much of a difference.

No matter if I go for a dome or a shed though it will be green.

[laser_jock99]

I decided against the dome because it would look out of place in the middle of upland farm country. A wooden shed looks like, a wooden shed. I don't want to attract any unwanted attention.

My obsy is the small shed like builing in the centre of the photo. It's not visible from the road but can be seen from Bridalways/footpaths. A white dome would draw people in for a closer look.......

[malc-c]

Wow - bet you get nice dark skies there !!

[laser_jock99]

Wow - bet you get nice dark skies there !!

Dark- but often cloudy.......wouldn't mind few more clear nights!