SnakeyJ's Obsy Build Thread

[SnakeyJ]

Amd we're up and running - first light with the HEQ5 & tripod in the obs.   First target and and an eye full of M13 @ 21:30hrs.   Beautiful evening here and if the sky stays clear it looks to be a great night.

The tripod hight is set to about 110cm above the concrete and if I set the RA to home and rotate the OTA just horizontal I have about 3-4mm clearance above the guide scope as the roof rolls off.   A little close for comfort, but will refine this once the pillar is installed and set a nice safe park position in EQmod.   Fair to say that space is limited and the RSPCA will be relieved to know that no cat swinging will take place on the premises - however once the plinth is up and the wiring tidied I think I can devote a corner to the lappy, provided the diet holds

I've never seen so much northern sky (from the garden) and my south and eastern horizons are also wider than I've enjoyed before.   The down side is I've lost quite a lot to the east and south east, but this can be improved with some judicious pruning

On balance it's a definite win and once I'm set up more permanently with the plinth, a door and fixed power it's going to be a real treat.

Back out to catch some more channels before some more serious exploring...

[SnakeyJ]

Pier's Here - bar a few licks of paint!

New boy on the block:

  

And Mr Bizibuilder's Original for comparison:

I think my fins/ribs and the base plate are a little bigger, but otherwise looks pretty much to scale.    All up weight according to the welders is 33Kg and probably capable of supporting many tons.

I've decided to avoid the Hamerite and go for red oxide + diamond white (ford transit) as I found a few cans left over at the office!

[SnakeyJ]

Just drilled the holes in the pier; 4 x 16mm in the base plate, 4 x 10mm and 1 x 16mm in the top plate, 4 x 10mm and 1 x 12mm in the floating top plate.

All drilled using an electric hand drills, starting at 4mm and stepping up 2mm  at a time.    Took quite a while and interesting how the heat of manufacture has hardened the steel close to the welds.

All undercoated and drying ready for over spraying transit white

Now have to cut the M16 bolt and drill and resin these in for the anchors, then pick up some M10 x 120mm SS bolts for the floating top plate tomorrow morning.    Seems I never have the right bolts to hand!

[SnakeyJ]

Holes drilled in the observatory this afternoon - 4 x 25mm dia x 450mm deep.   That should hold     I drilled out to 16mm first and them 25mm, though quite a lot of snagging and jarring along the way - even managed to jam the 25mm drill once (fortunately I was able to wrestle it out with a set of stillsons.    I'll resin the bolts in tomorrow morning.

I also got the door made up and fitted - does the trick, but need to add handles and a lock and give it a couple of coats of green preservative.

Pics to follow later on - though had a heavy shower, followed by a beautiful bright double rainbow - though my pic does not do justice:

[SnakeyJ]

Whoops my pier not quite in the same spot as Rogers - some minor adjustments later...

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk now Free

[SnakeyJ]

Tapatalks nice for reading, but will take some getting use to for posting stuff!

I got the bolts resined in this morning and installed the pier - though will not level and tighten up until tomorrow though it all seems to be sitting very nicely.   Whilst waiting I decided to install the damp proof membrane and raised floor.

First part went in a treat.

As did the second piece, but I soon realised my mount was 1/2" out to the right and 1/2" forward in comparison with the original build!

Just needed to measure up and make some minor adjustments to the two centre sections:

5 minutes later the floor was down:

The safety floor tiles went down very easily, with a few minor tweaks:

It's so much easier to do this with a good kit of parts, as there is very little measuring and engineering required - but massive thanks and tribute must be paid to Roger's ingenuity and generosity.    Although I still have a few jobs left to do, I now have a functioning observatory which fits very snugly in the corner of my modest garden and looks very neat and respectable.   We've also had some serious rain over the last week and the build appears to be dry and sound bar a tiny bit at the base of my ill fitting door!

I went out yesterday and brought my fixings for the levelling plate and decided that I would go for M12 stainless, rather than the M10 I had already drilled for - as the M10 x 120s just looked that little bit insubstantial against the pier.    This gave me a small job of expanding the 8 holes on the pier and top plate.    Six and a half holes in, my only 12mm drill bit and snapped in two.   As I had just missed the shops I shot off down to my brothers house to borrow another bit - but discovered he was away.       I managed to complete the 7th hole by hand turning the tip from the broken drill with a pair of mole grips though it took me about 30 minutes.    Almost in despair, I suddenly thought I could grind the broken shaft down to.    I've never even sharpened a drill bit on a grind stone, so this was rather new territory for me - but using the old tip as a guide to get the angles about right I grinded this down and had a fair approximation in about 20 minutes.

Much to my surprise it worked rather well and the 8th hole was drilled in very short order!   Perhaps not the finest example of tool making, but it certainly saved the day and I must admit to feeling rather chuffed

[SnakeyJ]

Meant to add - the adapter on top is the head piece from a spare aluminium EQ5 tripod I had in the loft - It will do the the time being until I can source a billet of 125mm aluminium bar to to make my own.    I shall probably fill the bottom of the casting with resin and bolt this from underneath to secure it to the mounting plate, though I'll test run tomorrow to get the alignment right and mark the top plate.

[Bizibilder]

Glad to see its all gone together well for you - certainly seems to be a good job!

[SnakeyJ]

First light achieved tonight, despite a bright moon and 30% cloud.   Still I managed to get polar aligned and to get a short capture on M76 (Little Dumbbell Nebula).   Quite a gusty night, but the observatory offered good shelter and the pier proved nice and solid - everything left up and running lest the clouds allow a short stab at Jupiter in the morning.

The pier and EQ5 adaptor proved even taller than my HEQ5 tripod, so have had to define a new park position with the scope almost horizontal and pointing south - though plenty of time to play around with this to find the optimum position and the height can be lowered by a good 50-60mm after dropping the top plate and making my own puck.    I also want to build a small desk and curtain so that I can sit in some comfort for the imaging runs - or will perhaps follow Roger's lead with the wheeled butchers block/trolley.

Quite a lot of jobs to do as tidying up - but one very happy bunny tonight!    Lets hope the weather starts to clear next week for some decent sessions

[SnakeyJ]

Here's the mounted scope in my new temporary park position:

What you can't see is the 70mm guidescope piggy backed on top - necessitating the additional counterweight.     May have to paint all the weights transit white to match

Will do some tidying up and proper wiring today.

[Astrokev]

Dragonflies are carnivores and are very unlikely to be interested in your buddleia!

Looking good!

Edit: just realised I've replied to a rather old post there! Not used to reading and posting from my iPhone!

[celkins]

Nice work, Jake.

[SnakeyJ]

Well one thing to be said for the dreadful weather - it gives an incentive to catching up with all the silly little jobs!

I've now trimmed my floor tiles, slight adjustment due to location of mount - this allowed me to properly fit the edging strip and essential damp proof material to stop rain coming in under the door.

I've started to make a little laptop/corner table, which has now received the second coat of paint.

Finally fitted the two roof locking pins above the observatory door (news of the tornado in Hayling Island had me a little concerned that only one end of the roof was secured/locked down).

Mount top plate was lowered by 35mm and levelled.

I've also put two end stops (rubber door stops) on the end of the roof rails.   Looking back over the photos it seems that Roger grew a large conifer tree expressly as a roof stop, but as I've recently had a bad experience uprooting one I thought a couple of rubber stops from the pound shop would proof rather less grief in the long term

Rumour from the met office is for a brief break in the cloud cover on Wednesday night, but plenty more jobs still on the list if this proves false!

Meant to add I had a puddle in my conservatory this morning after some serious rain last night - however the observatory was nice a dry

[Gina]

A section of our conservatory roof is now lying on the lawn   I have a very small leak in my warm room on the SW corner in direct path of the horizontal torrential rain we've been having - a spot of frame sealer should fix that when we get a break in the weather.  The rest of the obsy is bone dry - all the weather seals are working perfectly

BTW I know Hayling Island a bit - used to live in the area.  Farlington (Portsmouth) and Portchester and later on caring for my mother in Waterlooville.

[SnakeyJ]

Bad luck with your conservatory roof Gina - but sounds like the obs faired quite well.

It's certainly been stormy here, but thankfully the twisters in these parts are very brief and localised - though not uncommon.

typed on my mobile with Tapatalk

[Gina]

Thanks Jake

[SnakeyJ]

Thank heavens, it fits (just about)!

I will need to add camera, finder, telrad and electrics before rebalencing - but looks like I will just get away with this, thanks to Mr Bizibuilders foresight :-)

[SnakeyJ]

Seems to be a little lighter than my 200p, but will need to confirm when fully loaded..

[Gina]

Looking good Jake

I'm planning my second obsy   And I'm probably buying a second hand C11   I'm keeping myself occupied   Have 3x Barlow and MS Lifecam Cinema HD webcam - Jupiter should give a reasonable size image when it comes into season  

[SnakeyJ]

Looking good Jake

I'm planning my second obsy And I'm probably buying a second hand C11 I'm keeping myself occupied Have 3x Barlow and MS Lifecam Cinema HD webcam - Jupiter should give a reasonable size image when it comes into season

One day I would like a big sct for PI and would have been tempted by the CF C11 on ABS. Still the Europa should do well on planetary and will see if I can get reasonable guides with the OAG for some simple deep sky targets . A bigger mount is the next big purchase, though some way off.

[Gina]

I think the CF C11 on ABS may be the same one as in the Classifieds on here that I'm probably buying

[SnakeyJ]

Fingers crossed for you on that purchase Gina, though an ASI120MM-S is going to be calling for the planetary!

Got it all mounted, collimated and running tonight for a brief first light.   Great views with a 25mm meade 4000, and managed to get focus with the DSLR after removing the extension tube.   This rig is bigger/longer than the SW Exp 200P, but substantially lighter.   Balance was achieved by moving my three counterweights in a good 30mm.

[astrovirus]

Here's the mounted scope in my new temporary park position:

Is that a dewheater on your primary? Isn't that giving poor views due to creating tube currents from the injected heat. I know someone on the Dutch Astroforum did the same and he removed straight away as it removed the dew, but also ruined his images. To prevent dew it's better to blow away the boundery layer above the mirror with a Mauro da Lio baffle with fan.

[SnakeyJ]

Is that a dewheater on your primary? Isn't that giving poor views due to creating tube currents from the injected heat. I know someone on the Dutch Astroforum did the same and he removed straight away as it removed the dew, but also ruined his images. To prevent dew it's better to blow away the boundery layer above the mirror with a Mauro da Lio baffle with fan.

To be honest I haven't used it for almost a year. I was put right by advice from the PI crew. The primary has only misted up a couple of times and I use a blowdrier when needed for the secondary. I still use heaters for my telrad and the finder scope and occasionally for EPs.

I did make a fan and baffle for the 200p, but have never used this in anger, prob because the mirror cell is open and well ventillated.

I will mod the back plate of my Europa, prob with three small fans, as the tube is closed other than a small central hole.

[SnakeyJ]

Bad news yesterday from our landlord and sounds that our tenancy will be coming to an end this spring/summer, after almost 9 years.     I will have to hunt around for another property with space to accommodate the Bizibilder Mk1 Obs!

The observatory may be a little tight, but has fitted my garden perfectly and has proved an absolute boon to my early forays in to planetary and dslr imaging.      I will have to dismantle and store it temporarilly, but hopefully it will not be mothballed for too long and there's always the possibility I can extend the design with a small warm room, subject to finding enough space in the next garden.

Onwards and every upwards