The Shelley Observatory in 6 minutes

[sharkmelley]

Here's the observatory I built during the summer:

The timelapse video of its construction shot at 1 frame every minute for a total of 9000 frames:

https://vimeo.com/78316901

More photos and details here:

http://www.markshelley.co.uk/Astronomy/observatory.html

Mark

[Pete Presland]

very professionally done both the obsy and the video!

[nightfisher]

Excellent, bet you needed a nice cuppa after all the running about

[sloz1664]

Fantastic build and as Jules commented excellent video, you must be really chuffed with the obs.

I see you have installed two pillars. What are you proposing to install on both of them?

Oh and a first light please...

cheers

Steve

[jambouk]

Looks great and great time lapse too.

Thanks for sharing.

James

[Tinker1947]

Very nice build, well done......

[Gina]

Wonderful - both the build and the video - well done

[red dwalf]

what a great build and love the video

[r3i]

Great video - amazing what you can achieve in 6 minutes

[MadAlbert]

Nice one! My back is aching just looking!!

[catman161]

What a fantasy build! Truly inspiring and a great location for stargazing/imaging. Be lying if I said I wasn't unbelievably jealous! Well done, great job

[catman161]

*fantastic not fantasy! Although it is the stuff dreams are made of!

[JamesF]

The video doesn't seem to want to play for me, which is a shame.  Looks like a very nice observatory from the photos though

James

[sharkmelley]

Thanks for all your comments!  I will post my first light later.

James, I guess your problem with the video not playing is probably to do with plug-ins or security settings. But I'm no expert

Mark

[Eddy_J1]

Wow that's impressive, you sure are handy with woodwork

[Seme]

I did love the way the horses and buckets seem to follow what your doing.

great looking obs.

[sharkmelley]

As requested, here's the first light from the observatory - Coathanger Asterism taken in September with a Canon 350D on a Takahashi Epsilon 180ED with IDAS LP2 filter - 4 hours of data in total:

Larger version is here:

http://www.markshelley.co.uk/Astronomy/2013/coathanger07092013.jpg

The other pier has a Celestron C11 with the possibility of using with a Hyperstar attachment.  But I haven't really used it yet because I'm playing around with modifying the mount - I've just done an EQ6 belt conversion.

Mark

[RobertC]

Quite enjoyed watching the video, I could only wish for somewhere like such to get away from people and go and observe !

[MikeP]

BRILLIANT - both the video and the obsy.

Mike

[DannyB]

Awesome build ;-)

[barkis]

How did I get to see this so late.

You deserve a lot of praise for this construction, it is a superb creation.

An Observatory for life, and two Piers too.

I loved the time lapse video as well, a great record of the build sequences.

Well done, you should be very proud of yourself :icon_salut: .

Ron.

[sharkmelley]

Hi Ron

Thanks for your kind comments

Mark

[Paul M]

I had to watch it twice.

Fist time round I got fixated on that missing last length of weather board along the front at the bottom.

Luckily you put me at ease, eventually

Great build. I'd be happy to just have the open space and dark sky though!

[Gina]

AND NO CLOUDS!!!!!

[nytecam]

As requested, here's the first light from the observatory - Coathanger Asterism taken in September with a Canon 350D on a Takahashi Epsilon 180ED with IDAS LP2 filter - 4 hours of data in total:

coathanger07092013small.jpg

Larger version is here:

http://www.markshelley.co.uk/Astronomy/2013/coathanger07092013.jpg

The other pier has a Celestron C11 with the possibility of using with a Hyperstar attachment.  But I haven't really used it yet because I'm playing around with modifying the mount - I've just done an EQ6 belt conversion.

Mark

Well done Mark - 4 hrs exposure - you're lucky - I'd completely saturate in 4 min !!! --- but expect you're doing subs of 'some' duration !