My New Observing Deck

[Damo636]

Looks like a good job - but fairly easy compared to my ground works- I still have 3 tonnes of slate chippings to hand carry up in buckets to finish of my obsy site!

3 tonne in buckets, now that's what I call dedication

[Damo636]

Glad to hear there should not be any adverse effects Damo. I was only quoting what I have read but it's better to hear it from someone in a similar situation. Could you not get a garden shed and put it near to the deck and then drop some casters on the bottom of the dob to roll it out on to the deck when needed ?? If I remember correctly I think Johninderby did some thing similar to his dob ??

I think this is the road I'll go down Nick. I have lots of room up there so could erect something like a 6'x4' cheaply enough off to one side and join the two with some decking

A concrete pad will be thermally coupled to the (large amount) of earth underneath it. So it won't get that hot.

However if you have a concrete flat roof, for example, there's nowhere for the heat from the sun to go, except into the concrete itself. That *will* get hot, as will tiled roofs, walls etc.

So I'd expect thermal currents at night from surrounding buildings, but not from ground-based telescope pads.

Thats music to my ears Pete, cheers. It would have been disappointing to have gone to all this effort for it all be in vain.

[pete_l]

Re: concrete pads

Thats music to my ears Pete, cheers. It would have been disappointing to have gone to all this effort for it all be in vain.

Just don't go painting it black, or tarmac-ing it

[Peter Drew]

I'm surrounded by concrete buildings when in Tenerife which get very hot, but around half an hour after the Sun has set there is often fantastic lunar and planetary seeing.