A Romanian Observatory

[jimao22]

Yesterday I installed the metal rails for the roof and some reinforcements for the exterior beams. My father (82 y.o. now) was my third hand and I couldn't succeed without him.

To install the rails on the main frame (where the panels are) was necessary to partially dismantle the lateral walls, which was a problem. First rail was finished in 4 hours. The second one - less than an hour.

The complete rail is actually composed by 3 segments, well aligned and connected by some metal plates. The pictures below will explain you better what I mean.

The reinforcement beams.

First rail (part of it)

Adjustment detail on the exterior side of the first rail

Cnnecting metal plate

along the rail...

Detail of the adjustment in between panel wall and wooden structure

The "imaginary" mobile roof frame on track

Job done!

[Wolfgangwand]

Well , bit of an understatement but that's some build ! Really interesting thread with some great ideas and very well documented , talking of "Wells" that's one serious pier .

[wxsatuser]

Thats a serious foundation and an excellent obsy.

[Gina]

WOW!! That certainly looks substantial

[jimao22]

Today I felt for one more time a threshold was achieved.

Few days ago, I worked hard to finish the longitudinals beams of the roll-off-roof. I used for that some wooden beams 4 x 20 cm. The wheels used are special for garage doors (Hormann doors) and they have bearings inside and the shaft is moving axial, so if the rails are not perfect parallel, is not a tragedy, everything should work fine.

After some measurements over the parallelism of the rails, I found that I have almost 8.5 cm difference from one end to another, quite a lot.

A part of this difference I've been setting by dismantling the transversal wooden beam linking the two pillars and modifying like this the upper distance between pillars.

For the rest of the difference, I left the wheels and their moving shafts doing their job. It was perfect in the end.

Back on story, I installed the wheels on beams using some metal corners, as you can see in the pictures bellow.

Because I want to finish the job asap, I asked my father to help me painting the obsy (for the moment just the interior).

This are the results of the first afternoon of work:

The wheel

The wheel and the metal corner together

Wheels on waiting...

Wheels instaled

...details...

Beams with wheels

Test on "cold". Is working as a dream...

Painted walls (on start)

[jimao22]

That was few days ago.

Today I finished the roof, at least the moving part. I still need the missing panel which will be to the roof at the end of next week. The motor is in the basement, waiting to be installed as well.

So, we need a frame. Having two beams with wheels, I needed another two to close the frame. I cutted another 2 beams on right dimensions and I connected with the other 2 using some very long and solid wooden screws (1) and some metal corners on the inside of the frame (2). After that, I checked the frame to be rectangular and not a parallelogram, measuring the diagonals. I found a small difference of 3 cm and I corrected with 2 straps. While the straps on position, I installed 4 corner reinforcements, made from the rest of wooden beams, to be sure my frame is solid as a rock and stable.

The installation of the frame was a bit tedious because of the special shape of the rails, but finally we succeeded.

With everything on top, the roof is working smoothly, quietly and very easy. One hand is enough to push the roof.

The pictures and a small film is down below.

The big and long wooden screws

The inside corner

The straps to adjust the diagonals

Finished frame

Frame before installation, transported on the site

Roof closed

Roof open

A small film with the roof working.

[bottletopburly]

Nice work well done

[Scott]

Hey look... Romania gets clouds too .

Nice work there Jim

[robbie c]

what a fantastic job you put so much hard work into that build well done

[jimao22]

Thank you very much, guys! You're very kind.

I try to do my best. After all, is a dream from times I was teenager and should be proper fulfilled.

The money spent for the observatory till now reached the sum of 500£ - the third roof panel, the garage door motor transmission rail, the paint and some other items. Perhaps to the end I will reach 600£, but is a small sum of money for such a important astro-investment.

[jimao22]

Hi,

Last week I achieved the last panel for my roof, so now I have a complete roof. I did not fixed the roof panels with screws because it is possible to dismantle the roof one more time till the end of the building process.

What I made today was to obtain some sort of waterproofing and windproofing (I don't know if such a term exist in English) using some brushes for aluminium doors. I installed them along the roof frame, on the inferior side, and I can tell you it is quite a difference. And the look is very nice.

The forecast for next days is bad - a lot of rain - so perhaps I will finish the interior painting and I will start to make the wooden floor.

Keep you in touch!

The complete roof

the brush on the rear side of the roof

the brush on the front side of the roof

detail from beneath

[jimao22]

Hi,

Today I should broke the porky-pig bank and buy some stuff in order to work ahead to my observatory. I made the wooden floor (without the central part, where a special wooden lid will be made these days to allow me to have access to the bolts from the pier, if needed) and my dad finish to paint the interior walls and started the exterior paint job.

I used wooden profiles 45x45 mm for the frame and some wooden floor profiles that fit one each other.

The inside of the frame was filled with polystyrene foam, to insulate the cement slab by the heat of the day as good as possible, in order to improve the local seeing on the night time.

The photo-story of the day is following. Today I spent around 100£ for wood, screws, "L"profiles and polystyrene. To the end, I will tell you the final amount of money I spent for this.

I nice lizard came inside during the day and I take some shots with it before vanishing into the grass.

The frame

The floor job into the middle of the day

What a nice lizard we have...

Finding the way out

Ready for cover.

Covering...

And ready!

Outside wall on white.

[ASIGN_Baz]

Loving this build. Lots of practical solutions there. Thanks for sharing!

Baz.

[jimao22]

Today I decided to work to the observatory without knowing it will be the hottest day this year - 34 degree Celsius. But because I became extremely impatient to see everything ready, we worked all day long - me, my father and an electrician.

Today I finished the lid around the pillar, my father finished to paint the exterior and the electrician made all interior electrical outfit. The cost for electrical parts was again high, around 100£, but is no way to avoid this if I want to finish quicker the whole thing.

Pictures show you the story of the day.

The frame for the lid

1...

2...

3...

...and ready.

Outside look.

The red lamp

The white lamp inside...

...and the white one outside, on dusk.

[jimao22]

The motto of these days, when everything seems to be so close to an end, is "no day without some extras".

Today I had a tremendous luck. Looking for something else, I found behind my warehouse some coil profiles from an old project where the client changed his mind.

The coil is like new, with protective plastic foil on it, Z shape but very close to L shape (one of the sides is very small), waiting for me from 2009. The color is orange and it looks fantastic as ending for the roof.

I put one just for checking on the edge of the roof and I really like it! Not mention that I made an economy of another 100£, the total price for the coils to finish all the building!!

I am extremely happy because of that.

The official colors for my observatory became BROWN-WHITE-ORANGE or other way around .

[Scott]

It's always nice when things come together. so close to the end now, just in time for the longer nights. A job very well done Jimao. Congratulations

[malc-c]

What a nice lizard we have...

Male European Green. Lacerta viridis

Used to keep a female back in the late '90s - quite a character, just love the way they always seem to smile

[jimao22]

Thank you very much, Scott.

@malc-c - I will think about the name for my observatory. Someone else suggested me Lacerta Observatory to be a good name, because lacerta was my first guest.

[jimao22]

This week-end I started to fit out the observatory with some furniture (an old desk fro my company), with the dedicated computer who will control everything, I painted again the pier, installed the mount head and finishing with the coil cover to the edge of the roof. I feel like I have an observatory, at last.

Tonight, if the weather will be ok, I will make the first observations from my beloved observatory.

Roof ready

Inside

Inside (2)

[jimao22]

I will close this saga with this post, because I am ready with the construction and ready for a new way in astro-photography.

I installed the telescope on the mount and I connected it to the dedicated computer and everything is beyond expectations:

- the pier is hard as a rock so I do not expect to have any problems from this part. In time, I will see if I did appreciate correct the dimensions of the foundation (which is huge for most of you) and if the pier will remain steady on the winter time, when the soil inflate because of the water.

- the scope could be parked in normal way (pointing Polaris) not horizontal, because I have enough space between the rolling roof and the top of the scope, even if the last one is pointing to the Zenith. First good thing is I will not have problems with the wind (!!).

- because of the dimensions of the observatory (3x3 mtr), I do not loose a lot of the visible sky because of previous conclusion. The lowest point where I can see the sky is 25 degrees above horizon, which is alright. Anyway, lower than that is useless to point because of atmospheric extinction and bad seeing.

- I still have to install the roof motor but I will do it later on because I need to make some adjustments to the roof

Perhaps I will make a film when everything ready and I will post it here.

That all for now!

Thank you for your support and encouragements.

Cristian (jimao22)

Telescope parked

The lowest position toward the sky (25 degrees above horizon)

[Gina]

That's looking very good Cristian

[Scott]

Very good Cristian, all we need now are some images taken with this wonderful set-up

Scott

[malc-c]

Fantastic thread - and one nicely finished observatory - well done (oh and I like the name )

[jimao22]

As I promise you, here you can see the movie I made today with my observatory, as it is now (is like this from the end of June actually).

Next step - automation. Looking forward !...

[yesyes]

Great observatory. Well done!

I have to ask... what is the bag for that is hanging on the roof?