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Attic Observatory


The Sailor

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What's she doing Jim passing food via the trap door? :grin:

Well while you've been doing the conversion you definitely haven't missed a lot as regards clear skies although when I went to bed at 2:00am I did see some stars for a change.

It's definitely looking good though.

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This is really interesting and pioneering stuff, I bet a few are investigating their loft options, I certainly am as I have 100' high cedar trees nearby. I was thinking about the challenge of removing the Velux moveable unit for a session. Have you considered replacing the heavy double glazed unit with some (twin-wall or triple-wall) polycarbonate inserted into the Velux hinged frame? That way you would have a lightweight safer (for handling) hinged unit that could possibly be slid up some internal runners for temporary storage and may be able to dispense with the hoist and temporary cover.

Edit: Just found a similar arrangement in one of the above links, polycarb just slides out of the velux hinged frame, very neat!

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Tony, funny you should come up with that as I looked at this option yesterday, if I somwhow did this I would only lose a few inches either side, still plenty of room for my largest OTA. I would first of all have to make the replacement, take the frame out and then replace it, having had a close look I would have to be an acrobat to to get all the screws out and replace some of the frame furniture. I think it is feasible and worthy of consideration and thanks for thinking of it :).

Jim

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Tony, got that and thanks :). I have to say that my main worry will be leaks, I will wait till we have a good weather forecast :( and give that a good go, I will look on the net and see if I can find instruction for taking a unit out without the frame, once achieved it should be easy peasy :), thanks again.

Jim

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Well, I am having a rest at the moment with a cup of tea to calm myself, when I seen the sun this morm and looked at the weather forecast I knew I had to act. Opened the window, put the hoist in place and swung it into position, the next ten minutes were almost terror. Unlocking the frame and pushing I hung on for dear life to the hoist, the frame caught in the wrong place and having to let go the straps I wedged myself against the hoist and tugged and tugged, eventually the frame moved and I was hanging on to the whole weight above chest height. Grabbing the straps I let the frame move down gently and the last movement was to see it fall a foot, no damage, the window was out and I had a hole.

The job of taking the window unit out of the frame went okay and putting the frame back in was a doddle without the hoist. I cut the first piece of plywood and hoisted it up the outside and up the roof into the farme, fitted great, now having a rest before the next cut, the piece of clear PVC I found fits well and will become the light. I know one thing, that glass unit will not be replace, too dangerous for one person :).

Jim

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Just a quick update:

Ready for mount and the cover in place which will be held down with spring clips. The cover is going to have a PVC clear panel sandwiched between another piece of plywood, complete unit is light and easily taken out and replaced. Mount will now be replaced and hopefully if a clear night a complete setup will be done a a bit of stargazing :).

Jim

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The attic observatory is in operation :), I have had to do a bit of tweaking to the mount location on the floor to enable a clear run on slewing, although there were clouds I had the mount outside of the windown and done a few runs with it so a happy chappy. There is still work to be done all round but it don't affect the running of the observatory :), just need a clear night now and I can make it complete.

Jim

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The final result of the conversion:

Mount in parked position inside observatory.

Mount turned and moved forward to window.

Mount returned to parked position.

View from outside.

View from outside.

All that is left to do is a bit of tweaking in the observatory and shelving and stacking of equipment to the rear in the hobby room, just clear skies now , thank you for all your interest :).

Jim

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Great idea. One thing though, won't you be in direct contact with street lights??

Not really, I am well above them and at the moment they switch off at midnight, unlike the garden observatory which in a bit below them but have had the main offender shaded by the council ;)

Jim

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Not really, I am well above them and at the moment they switch off at midnight, unlike the garden observatory which in a bit below them but have had the main offender shaded by the council ;)

Jim

Well, that's very good. Not mention they go off at midnight. Best of luck, mate!

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First light for the observatory tonight, great sky so hope to see something :). Pushed the mount forward and out and checked Polaris and was blown away when it was dead centre, no adjustment needed. Straight into alignment and all well, if there are any thermals wandering around can't see them due to my teeth chattering :).

Jim

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Great idea. If you are just doing visual from up there I think it'll be fine. Imaging and I think you will have issues with vibration.

BTW - Those Celestron pads are an outrageous rip off. My DIY special? Get some of those cups that stop furniture making marks on the carpet . Fill them with the cheapest kitchen/bathroom sealant you can find or that tube that's going off in the garage you have from the bathroom project you did last year. There!! You have what Celestron charge £50 for and you made them for a couple of quid.

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Great Jim :) Clear here tonight but the moon is dominating everything almost. Where the moon isn't dominating the general LP is troublesome. I've been searching for something to image that shows above the mire.

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BTW - Those Celestron pads are an outrageous rip off. My DIY special? Get some of those cups that stop furniture making marks on the carpet . Fill them with the cheapest kitchen/bathroom sealant you can find or that tube that's going off in the garage you have from the bathroom project you did last year. There!! You have what Celestron charge £50 for and you made them for a couple of quid.

Done exactly that with thoses cups, I have done a lot more during the build with bolstering the joists and rubber matting so quite happy so far :). As it's been about six months since I last looked through an eyepiece I will be starting all over again and AP will be undertaken in a couple of weeks :).

Jim

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Great Jim :) Clear here tonight but the moon is dominating everything almost. Where the moon isn't dominating the general LP is troublesome. I've been searching for something to image that shows above the mire.

Thanks Gina, really happy so far, yes the moon is bright with Jupiter a bit way off I took a look and although a bit washed out could stil see features. There is a lot of disturbance in the air, the mist is starting to take over again but will persevere as I want to get my first view of Saturn at about midnight. Still a bit of tweaking to be done, cables to be routed from underfoot other than that, happy :)

Jim

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Hi Jim,

for what it's worth, I've been using a loft conversion obs for some months now without any probs. When I first suggested this to an experienced user, I got laughed at!

i was also told that vibration/thermals would kill the performance, but that hasn't been my experience. To be fair, I took the following precautions:

1. Fitted insulation between the floor joists, to thermally insulate loft room

2. Use the Celestron vibration pads to mitigate vibration from the rest of the house

3. Use rubber non-slip material between the vibration pads and the solid wood floor (and the mount legs and pads) - stops the pads from slipping, by increasing coefficient of friction

4. Hang an extra 20kg weight off the mount base, to 'lock' the mount into position in the absence of a pier

I am getting a tracking error rate RMS of only 0.3 arc seconds using a 1625mm RC. Am well pleased with that, given that all I had to do was make minor mods to an existing loft conversion.

unlike your situation, I haven't tried to remove the velux; the weight is the killer issue for me. My approach was to exploit the fact that I have ROTO Escape window fitted, which is top pivoted and will open up to 50 deg. I simply open the window wide when the weather clears, and off I go...

there is a loft window manufacturer that produces a side pivoting loft window, but it is entirely manual opening (the escape window has gas powered extenders - rather important when lifting that weight vertically). Let me know if you are interested, and I will dig out details...

would be interested to see what tracking rates you manage to get in your setup.

cheers and clear skies,

Sam

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Sam, thank you for that, I have done the same regarding the underflooring part, doubled the joists height so strenghtened, plenty of soundproofing and insulation. I cannot see any problems with thermals in actual fact whilst working up there late yesterday afternoon it became very cold and it was nice to descend to the bedroom below which was warm :).

I have had only one night so far but from that I have seen a couple of things to do, doubles the amount of rubber matting and on top of that a new rail to bring the mount to the window.

On the window side I have already taken the glass unit out and that is stored securly, the replacement panel is a triple layer of plywood with a clear plastic panel in situ, handles on the inside to allow easy removal.

Most of the work has now been done for the observatory, shelving for all the astronomy gear is at hand so not too much movement.

The hobby/storage room to the rear is still an ongoing project, a lot of computer gear is being installed so that it is available to all the laptops in the house through a Belkin USB Hub.

I will still find things to do and change in the observatory but it is working :).

The garden observatory is in a state of flux, yet to put the CG5 mount in place and the 200p is ready to go on it. I will be dismantling the warm room so there is just the observatory itself but will still be capable of remoting.

Thanks again.

Jim

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My pleasure Jim.

FYI: the rubber matting I was referring to is not the standard rubber stuff you get in B&Q etc. Rather, it's specialist 'sticky rubber' made of micro-mesh microfibres that grab any surface - regardless of how shiny they are (mimics the process in nature used by 'sticky willies'). They are usually sold to stop delicate equipment getting bashed around in a car during transit. The material feels sticky to touch even though its completely dry.

if you can't source it, let me know and I'll dig out the supplier I got it from.

I've found that the combination of that material, pads, and weights means I can push all my weight against the mount without any movement; the mount is effectively locked into place.

out of interest, how did you handle the flashing issue when replacing the velux with plywood/clear plastic, to prevent water leakage? I'm not sure i follow how you modified that...

cheers and clear skies,

Sam

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