Swedish imaging roll-off observatory in progress

[Grinde]

Ahoy mateys!

As some of you may know, Swedish summer-nights are too bright for imaging or observing other stuff than the moon, so being a total astro-addict, bad things start to happen when I don't get out & image... It starts out with reprocessing old data... After a while, I start craving for new gear... & after that stadium, I start to build stuff. Last summer-period, I ended up with a new ccd camera, a takahashi & a homebuilt laptop-case & portable powersupply box.

This time I was able to resist the urge to buy new gear, although maybe a new mount "might" be on its way, who knows. 'Cause of my job, I simply can't show up without a good nights rest, so i'll consider buying/building anything that help me make the best out the dark nights of imaging. So I figured I needed a permanent setup, to save me the timeconsuming procedure of mounting all the stuff, polaraligning, staraligning & so on.

(Perhaps in the future, some sort of automating part of the procedures)

Anyways, my sister bought some land & a house outside of town, with pretty darn dark skies & secluded area. She recently made the mistake of letting me have a patch of land behind an abandoned farmhouse to build a small observatory, & I went head-first into the task. First I needed a design. Since I already got two scopes, two cameras, and 'maybe' got a new mount incoming, I just thought "What the heck, I might as well build a dual imaging rig with two piers, how hard can it be" . I learn as I live.

First off, I called a friend who I knew had a mini digging-machine, so a fast phonecall & I was off to pick it up. Not having a clue how to operate it, I asked a coworker who's a pro-level everythinger to come help me out. Picked the machine up at 10am, decided where to put the obsy around 11am, & started digging at around 11:05am.

All photos with my cellphone, so the quality might not be all that great

Arial shot:

The horizon is free in all directions except N. The town is to the northeast, pretty much all other directions are pretty much free of skypollution, just mountains & forest, plus a few villages here & there.

Unloading the mini-digger

Giving it a try, much harded than flying choppers, more fun too

Just a sketch, going deeper soon

My coworker working into the dusk, it'd taken weeks without his help, instead of a few hours

[SlipperySquid]

Hahaha! Go for it mate! You can't beat using machines! Spades! Pah...mini diggers for the win!

Looking forward to watching the progress mate!

Matt.

[Grinde]

2nd day:

Asked my dad for some pointers when making a concrete base for the piers, I came up with this "design", supporting the two piers. Styrofoam as isolation was added to help prevent the frost from rising the whole thing from below

Dont mind my sisters cats

I left a "hole" in the middle since I'm mixing the concrete myself & wanted to save my back

Bought some rebar & tied 'em all together, took some time!

Borrowing my sisters tractor, pouring the mixed concrete into the front end loader, also a back-saver

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6222/6270204434_19150688cd_b.jpg' alt='6270204434_19150688cd_b.jpg'>

I used paper-tubes of half the length , I'll be adding more height & concrete to the piers after I've built the floor & decided the height of the walls.

Here are the views in North / East / South / West

[bamus]

how you have made first picture? kite, helicopter?

[Grinde]

Day Three

Didn't do much , just waited for the concrete to harden & then removed the wooden form & filled the hole in the ground with dirt on top of the base-plate.

I also had my imaging-rig setup just meters from the site, a real beautiful sight to the west, with mountaintops rising above the cloud-layer!

Click the image to see the processed photo from that night:

Hahaha! Go for it mate! You can't beat using machines! Spades! Pah...mini diggers for the win!

Haha damn straight! It's 2011, spades are so 1800's

how you have made first picture? kite, helicopter?

From one of the companys helicopters (EC120B to be more exact)

[Darth Takahashi]

Its nice to meet a fellow TAK and private helicopter owner!!! I was begining to thing I was the only one...

[Ericgraham]

That looks like a great site. How far away are the nearest sources of light pollution? The mountains look good- not so big as to block a lot of sky!

Eric

[George]

Thats coming along great.......I'd love your location & horizons

[studdedsole]

Great site, I'm really jealous of your location being a Biathlon and X-country skiing addict. First snows can't be far off, how the hell are you going to cope when it all starts?

[Grinde]

Hi all!

Finally some time off from weeks working out of town!

I called a friend who then called a friend who had a 2stroke drill, which we used for the concrete-thingies (not sure about the correct english terms), which hopefully will keep my observatory from getting airborn in the strong winds this time of year. I also sprayed a "template" 3m x 5m. And the day after the holes where made, snow "finally" came... I'm so stoked I managed to finish all the base-work.

close call!

I'm going to try to find some wheels/rollers this weekend, & hopefully start working on the roof on monday

Its nice to meet a fellow TAK and private helicopter owner!!! I was begining to thing I was the only one...

Haha what're the odds?! Are you flying commercial or private? & what copters?

That looks like a great site. How far away are the nearest sources of light pollution? The mountains look good- not so big as to block a lot of sky!

Eric

The only city (40.000ish ppl) is around 10km north-east, so that wont be a big problem. I think the skies are really nice there!

Great site, I'm really jealous of your location being a Biathlon and X-country skiing addict. First snows can't be far off, how the hell are you going to cope when it all starts?

You'd love the location if you're into those things! The snow just got here, as you can see in the pics I'll just slide into my long-johns & I'm all set

[Gina]

WOW!! You've got a good move on Looks a very solid construction - coming on nicely Well done

[beamish]

aw Grinde, no pics mate !! I was sooo enjoying this. Gotta admit tho I AM jealous of your horizons

[GJBC]

im getting the first batch of pics but not the second. love to location looks to be above the clouds or was it a low cloud in a valley?

[Grinde]

I'm very sorry y'all, I somehow must've messed up the image-links, when copying them from my post in a swedish forum to save time, they show up in my web-browser, but not in cell-phone app... Let's try a new post!

[beamish]

very impressive !

[GJBC]

Wow that is going to be a big one

I will watch this build with interest

now that's two new builds to follow

[laser_jock99]

Good progress so far- good to see you have dark skies to go with it.

[Grinde]

Hi guys, finally time for another update!

Finally I've had the time to put some serious work into the obsy, just a few things left, like finishing the piers, probably before the weekend!

Things I will complete in the future, as I get more time & more equipment: Install motor for roof-control, hardware for operating the whole thing remotely & maybe a cloudsensor, who knows!

I'll add more photos when the piers have been finished & the mounts & scopes in place!

/Jonas

[beamish]

that's such a serious and awesome build !! Some shed

[GJBC]

that is certainly coming on nicley.

[Aoraki]

That my friend, is one excellent shed. Keep up the good work.

[Gina]

Now that's what I'd call BIG Great stuff

[Grinde]

Thanks all! It's been an adventure from the beginning, I just love going head first into assignments, running into problems & trying to figure out how to solve 'em! It's been pretty much 3 months since I started, my workschedule 'causing the slow progress. The effective time on the build is probably around 8-9 days, thanks to the help from friends & family. I've learned many new & handy skills when it comes to carpenting, concrete casting, driving digging machines (awesome!)

Now I'm pondering about the different ways to motorize the roof... Garage-door motors, industrial ac-motors, electrical winch wires/pulleys, rack/pinion & so on... Any suggestions? I also want the possibility to integrate with ascom/ACP/CCDAP for remote operation in the distant future. I've been looking at the M1oasys & foster systems, but haven't found any info about what kind of motors that would be compatible...

I'm currently waiting for the concrete to harden in one of the piers, sleepless night lol! It's around -10°C outside, so I've put a heater close to the pier, seemed to work since it's around 5°C inside the observatory...

I've calculated (but not finalized) the height of the pier so the ota in horizontal orientation will clear the sliding roof with around 10cm, giving me clear horizon down to below 10° azimuth, that should be enough? Or is it better to go with lower pier to get better wind protection, at the cost of clear horizon for the scope?

I'm planning to open a part of the "south wall" part of the roof to get better clearance to the mount/scope if I getter a bigger ota in the future

[Nibor]

I'm well impressed!! - Is there a warm room facility - or have I missed it!!

Looking forward to seeing the finished project.

Sorry to learn about no dark skies to speak of in summer - but I am sure winter more than makes up for it!

[ollypenrice]

That's brilliant. You have SO MUCH SPACE all around you!!! Your pictures are going to be better than ever. I've just built a new observatory, too, and it is just so luxurious compared to the full roll off sheds I had before. Now I have heating. Oh yesssss....

Olly