the yesyes observatory - the build

[yesyes]

No kids (yet) but the wife has expressed concerns whether I will spend any time in the house once the obsy is finished.

The walls inside will not be painted. I quite like the way the ply looks. Maybe some clear treatment later on...

[yesyes]

I've finally got electricity in my obsy! What a milestone! The electrician came round today to wire up our new bathroom. So while he was there I asked him to do the connection of the armoured cable just outside the obsy.

There was some progress last weekend too but not much to show on pictures.

I glued down the second half of the scope room floor. It was much easier that the first half as it has been lying in place for a week. The first half came straight from the roll and the ends kept coming up.

I also finally aligned the roof track (lots of swearing involved). Until now the inverted angle was just lying on the runners. I should have done that a long time ago when the roof was just a frame and not so heavy.

[michael8554]

Regarding the armoured cable terminations.

I think the brass bits should be covered by the boot on an outside installation.

Might be that internal kit has been used?

Otherwise looking good, getting electrons is a definite milestone.

Good luck

Michael

[yesyes]

It was definitely an outdoor kit (the CW type). I guess he just forgot to push that cover all the way up. Will have a look tomorrow...

[yesyes]

I now have Gigabits in the obsy! ;-)

I caught the flu so feeling a bit weak but managed to connect up the house side of the network cable to the obsy and install the switch and an old router as a WiFi access point.

[malc-c]

Chris - your cabling is resembling a birds nest already

Don't tell me with all those ports in the observatory you couldn't of placed the router somewhere else !!!

[yesyes]

LOL, that will be installed properly to the right of the switch. Just wanted to see if it works.

[malc-c]

LOL - take your word for it... I remember saying that to my old boss when I was rebuilding the network cabinet in our old server room

[fondofchips]

From a rough patch of ground with a tree stump in the way you have done a brilliant job, just the details left.

There is a big temptation to get the optical gear up & running again, I'm trying to resist that & get the obsy finished first but it's not easy!

[yesyes]

ooooohhhhh yes. Can't wait to set up the scope. But I want all the dusty jobs finished first. At the moment it's still far too dirty in there.

[yesyes]

Better, Malcom?

[malc-c]

Uhmmmm.... weelllllll,   Errrrrrmmmmm 

It'll do

[Earl]

you need a bigger switch, no way near enough ports

[yesyes]

Yeah, I was thinking that. Should have bought a 48-port. I'll deal with that when I run out of ports.

[yesyes]

Today I put the 2nd desk in the warm room. This will be the telescope control desk.

The original size of the desk.

The corners of both desks are too close to each other. Not as bad as I thought but still too close.

So I shortened it a bit

Now I can get into the room comfortably

I didn't remember that this desk had a board at the back. It was a perfect fit under the sockets!

I've also installed the mount. I'll probably need a different pier adapter at some point but this one will do for now.

I can see the scope through the window from the scope control desk.

Earlier this week I installed some shelves

It's hard to take a picture of the whole room. This is the best I could do.

Not long now. I just need to tidy up and then vacuum clean the floor and I'll be ready to install the scope. Probably next weekend.

[yesyes]

I will round the corners of the desks a bit before cleaning. I forgot about that today.

[malc-c]

Looking good, and agreed, round the corner of the desks will make things easier

[Tiny Small]

Really enjoying this thread. Hurry up and get more done!

[yesyes]

i'll do my best

[yesyes]

Few more things done today.

Plugged in the patch cables (as an easy start )

Rounded the corner of the scope desk. I used my belt sander. I'm a bit reluctant to round the corner of the other desk as that would destroy the edging. I'll leave that for now and may reconsider when I hit that corner the first time

Removed the tube heater again and re-installed it a bit further from the wall. This thing does get quite hot and I wasn't comfortable having it so close to the wood.

The internal door didn't close properly as the floor rises a bit towards the scope room. Had to sand a bit off the bottom. Not much though, so this is how I did it

Then I vacuum cleaned the warm room.

Then I installed the outside light, a 20W LED flood light. It fits just in between the front door and the window. I ran out of little junction boxes so it's not connected yet.

Then a bit of tidying up in both rooms...

Our cat already feels comfortable here...

[Stargazer33]

Looking really good Chris, very professional.

With all the cloudy nights here with the odd hour or two clear spell late in the evening, I'm very jealous of anyone with an obsy that they can just pop out to and fire up their kit and then close everything down when the clouds roll in again. Rather than have to play a guessing game early on as to whether the rain is going to hold off and it's worth putting all the kit out to cool down on the off chance that the clouds might clear later.

I hope you get some clear skies when you are finished and ready for first light.

[Beulah]

That's a stunning observatory. Good enough to live in!

[catman161]

Fantastic! This is such an impressive build! I am so envious of you and all who have a lovely observatory

[Blazar]

Hi Chris.

Great build. Now the project is entering the final phase(s), have you had time to sift through all of the receipts and see if you were within budget....or was there no budget when you kicked this off (+/-10%?)

Take my hat off to you...I would build one, but just had some builders put up new bungalows 18 feet from my rear fence....such a shame really....

Hope you gain many happy hours observing and imaging from your obs.

Regards

[yesyes]

Hmmmmm, the budget. I had a rough idea of how much I would spend. It was more like a guess than an estimate. I thought about £1000 - 1500.

I went waaaay over that. Things just kept adding up, especially small things that I had not even thought about before starting the build.

I started an Excel spreadsheet from the beginning and listed everything I bought (so no fiddling with receipts now ). It added up to about £3400. This includes everything you see on my pictures, except for the Ethernet switch and patch cables (this is "gear", not part of the build) the desks (the corner one was free from work and the straight one is my old desk from the house) and carpet flooring (which I also got free from work).

This may sound a lot for an obsy. But in my case the warm room will also be my electronics workshop and general DIY tinkering room, i.e. my man cave.

For example I ran a lot more cabling (mains and network) than would be required for just an obsy. This has added quite a bit to the cost and also to building time.

By using the "shed" for more than just the telescope I'll get a lot more use out of it, especially when it's raining!