The Last Stretch *** NEW PICS!! ***

[Andrew*]

Finally got round to taking those pictures. Here's the start of final step of the Beannachar Astro Station (yet to come up with a better name... just shout out any suggestions ).

I've been wheeling rocks and sand about the place (bending knees of course ).

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here's the triangular hole with some large stones in the bottom. Some weak concrete will hold this all together (thanks radioactive!)

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here's the finished station itself. When the concrete's set, we will start designing the exterior (make it look pretty during the day). Wooden blocks simply suspend the pedestal in the right position. The marks on the outside are permanent. Thankfully it will all be painted over!

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Close up of the legs. The leg angle is sawn off so the nuts have a flat surfact to tighten onto. I will take levelling very seriously so that I will not need too much of the thread to fine-tune once it's set.

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3 2" poles go through the corners so that strong bars can be slid through. One person holding each end should be able to heave the thing out of the ground when its time comes!

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two holes are hidden descreetly in the space in the middle. Just as well as my handiwork is rather messy :oops:. And yes, that is duck tape sealing gaps in the wood so concrete doesn't seep through :oops:

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the central hole uses a drainpipe, which will leave a small gap for leads to go through into the space below which will hold two power packs. I didn't quite calculate the position accurately, but it won't be noticed when it's finished as it will be submerged in concrete.

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This is the space from outside. The greenhouse is past its best, so will be taken down. I intend to extend the floor around the station and have it as a whole entity. Maybe a shed around the station, the door opens, and the whole shed slides up against the wall. The wall is north. Behind that is only skyglow from aberdeen, so I'm not missing much Where the wall isn't is all quality sky.

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Actually, it's not the final step. Still to make is the table for accessories on the top, and to decorate it all, and to make a nice flooring around it...

Now's the time to make any suggestions, 'cause we're finishing it tomorrow evening

Cheers

Andrew

[Helen]

Looking good Andrew! Hope it all goes smoothly tomorrow

Helen

[barkis]

Nice going Andrew, you are putting a lot of effort into this project.

I wish I lived a bit nearer, I would love to get involved in this build, but Aberdeen is a fair old hike from Carlisle.

Keep at it, it will be finished before you know it.

Ron.

[jgs001]

Andrew, That's coming on a treat and looking good.

[Andrew*]

Thanks a lot chaps.

We finished it off last night. Well, tried to. The group is now only 3 strong (George and Florian). In the dark, one person was most of the time holding torches while the other two worked. Also we came into some levelling issues which took up a lot of time. We worked from 7 till 9. Then the other two had to go so I continued for a while longer. The station still wasn't totally full, but I was knackered, so I got out the scope and had some good old star time to remind me why I was doing all this...

This morning I worked for another hour, mixed some fine-grain cement and topped it right up and got it level. I'll tell you - that is really sturdy! Only 0.1 degree shift if you try to wiggle it, and it hasn't even set yet. Started to rain just as I was finishing it off this morning so got it covered up in a tarp. Was all a bit of a struggle first time round, but it feels amazing now that it's done.

How many days before I can use it, d'ya reckon?

I'll get some pictures of it next time I'm up there. Cold and snowing (slushing) out there now

Andrew

[centroid]

You can now take a bit of a well earned rest now Andrew.

With a 'lump' of concrete that size, It leave it to 'cure' for a few days at least.

BTW, don't let if 'freeze'.

Cover it with some straw or sacks etc.

Dave

[Andrew*]

You can now take a bit of a well earned rest now Andrew.

With a 'lump' of concrete that size, It leave it to 'cure' for a few days at least.

BTW, don't let if 'freeze'. Cover it with some straw or sacks etc.

thanks for the tip. I was intending to leave it for about a week, but I'm warming to the idea of getting going with it maybe tuesday

I'll get some pictures of it next time I'm up there. Cold and snowing (slushing) out there now

in fact. I have some in-betweenies:

george, working hard! Nice dusk sky, too.

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this is the hole, only 1ft deep again, and ready for the station itself to be put on. the pole and drainpipe covered up, to save the concrete locking onto it.

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george, looking proud of an afternoon's work, and the sand pile somewhat smaller.

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Cheers

Andrew

[Andrew*]

BTW, don't let if 'freeze'.

ermm... it has :?

it was under a tarp, and there was some condensation (not frozen) on the pedestal, but the ground is freezing, and sooner or later it will get in there. What's wrong with it freezing?

Anyway, has anyone got any ideas for names?

Andrew

[Andrew*]

Here's the latest from the B.A.S. progress

it kind of froze over yesterday:

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a lot

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but it looks okay. one of the tubes slid out and I didn't realise. I really should have glued them in or something... no matter as I intend to cover them up under a planet when we decorate it!

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not much thread travel, but I'm confident in my levelling!

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The more I think about this, the more I realise how worthwhile it's going to be - how easy, hassle free and quick observing and imaging will become - nothing to lug about or align or wire up or fumble about with in the dark. :D

I'll get some more pictures on tuesday when it gets put to the full test. Unfortunately I must wait awhile for the cover to come and it can be left out...

Andrew

[Andrew*]

No interest?

I set it all up today and it is mightily impressive how much improvement it is over a tripod (pff!)! The only thing I would change at this point is the mount, which is now quite well loaded up, with 20kg on the counterweight bar!

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Still have to polar align it properly though... :D

And the cover should come any day! I think this is going to transform my astronomy! I'm so pleased with how it's turned out.

Andrew

[jgs001]

Andrew, that looks really good. Excellent work.

[gary1968]

Andrew that looks the business............ :wave:

I'm sure you'll be really proud of that and it'll, as you say, ease your set up effort and time allowing you to get some real good imaging done.

Hope the weather is good.................

Gary

[Helen]

Looks good Andrew 8) I bet you can't wait to test out now, and just imagine your students' reaction to the pictures you're going to take :shock:

Keep us informed!

Helen

[centroid]

What's wrong with it freezing?

Sorry Andrew, I hadn't realised you'd updated us again.

When water freezes it expands (hence burst pipes), and cement/concrete contains a lot of water. If fresh cement freezes before its properly cured, it isn't a lot of good after it thaws out

As most all of your block of concrete is in the ground, and we don't get 'permafrost' in this country , you'll probably be quite safe, but its wise to cover the wet surface to keep the frost off.

However, you are way beyond that stage now.

Dave

[Andrew*]

Thanks a lot guys and gals.

Andrew that looks the business............ :wave:

I'm sure you'll be really proud of that

Yes Gary, it really gives me a sense of achievement. It's the first thing I've built from scratch since treehouses

Hope the weather is good.................

the cloud gods are getting seeeriously paranoid. As soon as I started bringing everything over to the astro station the sky darkened and rain began to fall. I'm not going to be able to use this before next winter

As most all of your block of concrete is in the ground, and we don't get 'permafrost' in this country , you'll probably be quite safe, but its wise to cover the wet surface to keep the frost off.

Dave

Dave, thanks for the explanation!

I'm sure you know this, but I'm just thinking logically. Water is at its most compact at 4 degrees (why isn't there a degree key on the keyboard?!?), so surely if it heats up to say 14 degrees it would expand to a similar extent as it would at -6? Anyway, as you say, I'm beyond that stage, and it seems to do the job just as well as I'd hoped, so it's quite irrelevant

Looks good Andrew 8) I bet you can't wait to test out now, and just imagine your students' reaction to the pictures you're going to take :shock:

I imagine (ahem!) so. I'll try and get them involved in some imaging too, perhaps.

This evening we cut up a triangle of ply to go over the concrete. This will serve as a temporary table so we don't need to lay the EPs on the bare concrete! There's some beech wood drying out and once that's ready we'll cut that to size and bore some holes for eyepieces and other things. This will sit on top of the ply.

cheers

Andrew

[Black Shuck]

Sorry Andrew, I had missed these upates until today (i'll blame it on working too late?!!!).

Looks really impressive now especially with the scope mounted. I expect George is looking forward to having a look through?

Well done.

(why isn't there a degree key on the keyboard?!?)

For a degree symbol on the keyboard ° hold down ALT and type 248

All the best

Bill£

[Andrew*]

Thanks Bill. Now let's see....

2428z248

nope

[gary1968]

Sorry Andrew, I had missed these upates until today (i'll blame it on working too late?!!!).

Looks really impressive now especially with the scope mounted. I expect George is looking forward to having a look through?

Well done.

(why isn't there a degree key on the keyboard?!?)

For a degree symbol on the keyboard ° hold down ALT and type 248

All the best

Bill£

Blast, you beat me to it.................. :wave:

I know of the Alt 0176 in MS office apps but that didn't work here, I was still trying to find the code for it when you posted......

Cheers,

Gary

[Black Shuck]

Thanks Bill. Now let's see....

2428z248

nope

I think the 248 has to be on the number pad and you must hold down ALT whilst typing it.

Other ones I found useful ALT 252 (superscript cubed ³) and ALT 253 (Superscript squared ²). I am sure there are many more but these are the ones use most often.

I was shown this whilst using old windows 3.1 a few years back and it still works on XP !!

Good Luck

Bill£

[themos]

Looks great, hope it works too!

[Andrew*]

°??²?????? ???2?2??2?????2§?68¨•9 this is great fun! I still can't get ³ though...

cheers guys!

Andrew

[jgs001]

<a href=http://www.asciitable.com/>Here's</a> a listing of the numbers. You need the extended ascii values at the bottom of the page.

[Starflyer]

That looks great with the 'scope mounted Andrew :hello1:

[Andrew*]

well the Telegizmo 365 cover came today, with NO CHARGE FROM CUSTOMS!! So all in all it cost me £95 including shipping, which I think is pretty good. It's some serious bit of kit - very well made and very heavy duty indeed. I've already "installed" it:

as you can see the circumference is just on the small side for the base. I added 4" to the circumference, so I can't work out why it's too small I will get round it somehow...

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It's currently attached using the blue belt which came with it. I intend to put in some hooks of some sort to hold it that bit better. I was thinking of having lockable hooks of some sort, which might discourage the odd thief. Any ideas for this?

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and as you can see - pretty shiny. Well see in a year's time whether it lives up to its name...

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Yet to think of a way to make the whole set-up secure. We only ever get thieves every 3/4 years or so, but that's too often for my liking. I was thinking of having wooden lids for each side of the table top, which would lock with padlocks or similar. This would mean I could leave my eyepieces etc. safe and sound in there all the time.

Cheers

Andrew

[Ant]

Andrew, thats looking good.

I'm trying to work out why you didn't pour the concrete into the top 9" or so of the triangular hole and then bolt the tripod to that?

Doesn't having a triangular box partially filled with concrete sitting on a concrete base mean that the whole things can move quite easily.

Not a criticism, just a question - as I'm looking at doing something similar in my garden (so have been watching this thread closely)

Ant