New Observatory... Rancho Estrellas - The Build Begins...

[Tinker1947]

There's nothing like a bit of over engineering to give peace of mind........it's coming along nicely....

[wk4bg8s]

Well, the rain was light, and only lasted through the early morning hours, giving way to sunshine as is the norm in Northern California. This gave me time to get most of the trusses in

place, good use of the form lumber used in the foundation. The clouds started coming out later in the day, but I finally got the forms in place for the pier which will be poured by hand

tomorrow morning. Rain or shine, the mud goes in

[Scorpius]

Great progress & nice workmanship - you are doing an awesome job...

[Scott]

Loving this thread. My 4'x4' roll off shed build is into its second yr

[Beulah]

Excellent build thread! This is the observatory and location we all dream of!

How dark are your skies?

[wk4bg8s]

I mentioned that I formed the main pier that I was going to pour today, but forgot the post a pic, so here it is... 

and before you ask, it's square because everyone else makes them round 

Have poured the pier, now adding insulation to the warm room area, will take the rest of the day off

after I throw some plywood on to keep the rain out 

[laser_jock99]

Looking like a great build.

[Scorpius]

Kim, you are going like a house a fire with this build and doing an awesome job to boot! But maybe you should take a couple days off & rest - I mean after a while, all that heavy lifting can really wear you down... 

[wk4bg8s]

Kim, you are going like a house a fire with this build and doing an awesome job to boot! But maybe you should take a couple days off & rest - I mean after a while, all that heavy lifting can really wear you down... 

Ha ha ha!!! No can do Kemosabe, Great Hunter from the east will pull ahead, can't have that 

I see some siding on your ob, not sure what to think about that... think I'll sleep on it before commenting 

Have a great Friday!!!

[Scorpius]

Ha ha ha!!! No can do Kemosabe, Great Hunter from the east will pull ahead, can't have that 

I see some siding on your ob, not sure what to think about that... think I'll sleep on it before commenting 

Have a great Friday!!!

Kim, hope you have a great Friday as well and just kidding about the resting part since slowing down obviously isn’t in your vocabulary. You really are moving forward at an amazing pace & I’m happy for you that things are going so well. My main goal is just to get a roof on my little shack before the snow flies & the ground freezes over so I can actually use it some this winter with the scope permanently setup & aligned. Yes – the plan is to get some siding on this weekend but then I’ve still got more posts to set in order to build a framework for the tracks before roof construction can actually begin.

With the time change coming up this weekend, it will be already be dark when I get off from work - so no chance of doing anything at all during the week. But if I was retired like some folks I know, it would definitely be a different story. 

Got an old army buddy out in San Diego whose got some funny sayings about cowboys & Indians but my favorite goes like this:

White man build BIG FIRE – sit far away...

Indian build little fire – sit close...

There’s a lot of wisdom there when you stop & think about it. Have a good one my friend & try not to work so hard!!! 

[wk4bg8s]

We have rain in the forecast, so I need to get the flooring in place today! I stripped the forms from the larger pier first thing this morning, and am now

getting coffee and posting this pic    Forecast says rain thru Monday, so that will give me a nice 2-day break... still need to run the power under the

joists before I put the floor on, but that won't take long, I hope 

[chrisvdberge]

Wow.. you are going strong! .. and this thing will be HUGE! .. 

What will you be mounting on the pier? (Is probably mentioned somewhere and I missed it.. apologies..)

[wk4bg8s]

Wow.. you are going strong! .. and this thing will be HUGE! .. 

What will you be mounting on the pier? (Is probably mentioned somewhere and I missed it.. apologies..)

Hey Chris;

On the large pier I will be using a Paramount MX+ with a classic Borg 100ED that I am kind of partial to. I have a Astro-Tech 16" RC on order, so that will rest the

larger pier eventually. On the smaller pier, a Losmandy G-11 for visual use, and I have a couple of scopes that I could use there.

Kim

[wk4bg8s]

Well, the skies cleared, the temperature is rising, but they still say rain is coming 

Anyway, my wife played hooky today, and we slammed out the flooring, looks good if I say so myself 

I added some Portland Cement to the mix for this pier, makes it smoother, as well as PCS-2 setting accelerator. This will give it 70pct hardness

in about 30 days instead of 50. Any vibration prior to 30 days could cause the pier to fail, and I don't want that.

We are taking the weekend off, and if it clears, will get back on it Tuesday. Here are a couple of pics of the flooring as well as both piers. 

I used Loctite Sub Floor on every piece of ply that went down, and all are screwed in place. The glue simply

stops the floor from creaking when you walk, nothing more... well, it does help hold it in place, just a bit... but

I hate creaky floors...

I just set the Paramount plate in place to be sure that I got the bolts correct... I did, whew 

The larger pier has 2" conduit in the center of the concrete, the smaller to the side. The smaller pier will have a aluminum pier bolted in place

that is already filled with concrete, so no luck going with center wiring... So, thanx for watching, ya'll have a wonderful, clear skies weekend! 

Kim

[Scorpius]

Kim - looks awesome & that big pier is a real beast!!! +1 on subfloor adhesive, quiets it down a lot & screwing it down really makes a solid job. My compliments on your build and hope you enjoy the weekend off...

[Horwig]

Love this build. If a job is worth doing, it's worth doing well!

Good on you, I look forwards to more progress.

Good luck with your build

Huw

[wk4bg8s]

Love this build. If a job is worth doing, it's worth doing well!

Good on you, I look forwards to more progress.

Good luck with your build

Huw

Thanx Horwig!

I know to many it seems like overkill, and I certainly do not mean it to be so, only want to do this one time 

I'mm still in the warm room planning stages, always open to any ideas and input from all. The scope room is pretty well done (in my mind), but we'll see as I go forward.  Thanx again for the good words!!!

Kim

[Chris Hopson]

It's not overkill Kim, it's being done right first time!!

[wk4bg8s]

Well, a bit of light rain this weekend, not the deluge that we were promised, so we got to work a bit which was great! I have a few friends (4) that helped me

today, and will be here tomorrow and Thursday, and with a bit of luck, we'll have a roof in place by the end of the day.

Here are a couple of "teaser pics" I took today 

The secured end of one support beam for the roll-off roof. Each is a contiguous 20' beam...

The business ends of the beams. I still have the forms in place, and they will remain until I am done building... Is that some

OSB shear I see in the pic's? 

Thanx for watching!!!

Kim

[Chris Hopson]

Oh, your bad, leaving us on a cliff hanger like that.

[wk4bg8s]

Well, it has been a week of hard work, and with the storms moving in, it was time to move! I have to admit that I had some extra hands helping me this

week, and man does that make things go fast. Everyone involved has building experience, and knows to ask if they hit a snag or don't know which way

I might be headed. All in all, we accomplished in 2 1/2 days what it would have taken 7-10 days for me to do.

In my last post, I hinted at something a bit more than I was willing to admit to, and here is a pic of that. Notice that

the outrigger rail supports are not there yet. I jumped the gun a bit, but hey, it's my build, right 

This pic is just before end of day on Wednesday the 4th. We added the rail supports right after I took this pic.

This pic was taken at end of day, my teaser of something better to come 

Just the view looking True North from the scope floor. On a clear day...

This pic, about noon on Thursday, looks like a ROR to me with shear added to the Northwest end of the building...

Looking to the Northwest...

Looking to the East...

Sold a nice Palomino the other day, they are here to pick him up, so off I go. Hope you enjoy the pics, I;ll post

a few more later this afternoon.

Thanx for watching 

Kim

[catman161]

This has to be not only one of the best, if not the best build threads I've but also the fastest too. The level of professionalism of the whole process only adds to the astonishment of how good this is. I'm loving watching this progress. Thanks for sharing with us your journey [emoji4]

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[deadmeat30]

This is shaping up rather nicely, ive enjoyed reading through the thread. Look forward to more.

[Scorpius]

Kim, top notch workmanship & amazing progress. I’m sure you’re anxious to get your gear in there & start using your obsy. After all, that’s why we choose to put ourselves through all this hard work in the first place right? My progress has been thwarted by the weather once again but glad to see you pretty much have yours dried-in. Looks like some siding is about all that’s left so hope that goes up fast & look forward to more of your updates.

Please understand I’m not being critical but just wondered – is there enough headroom on that beast of a pier for your big scope & will the square shape create any issues with tube strikes? I’m sure you considered that during the planning stage so probably viewing the pics out of context?

Like the way you did your rails - gives the roof a nice low profile. I think that's going to be an issue for me since I purchased 4" rollers & V-tracks. The tracks were advertised as 3" wide but when they arrived they were 4". That's too wide to fit on a 4x4 - which is 3.5" per side - so now looking at adding a 2x6 on top of the 4x4 so the tracks won't hang over the edge. Contacted the vendor & he offered to accept a return & send some aluminum tracks which are 3" wide but don't have time at this point so will try to figure out a way to make the 4" ones work...

Great build and best regards,

Scorpius

[wk4bg8s]

Kim, top notch workmanship & amazing progress. I’m sure you’re anxious to get your gear in there & start using your obsy. After all, that’s why we choose to put ourselves through all this hard work in the first place right? My progress has been thwarted by the weather once again but glad to see you pretty much have yours dried-in. Looks like some siding is about all that’s left so hope that goes up fast & look forward to more of your updates.

You are correct, but then the long, arduous process of alignment etc., will begin. We got the siding and roofing on late Friday, I will post those pics later today. Just in time as well, the

rains began early Saturday morning.

Please understand I’m not being critical but just wondered – is there enough headroom on that beast of a pier for your big scope & will the square shape create any issues with tube strikes? I’m sure you considered that during the planning stage so probably viewing the pics out of context?

As far as headroom- yes, when the mount is parked, I will clear just fine, about 3 inches or so. I know it is not much, but I am pretty careful about checking and re-checking things before I pull the trigger. The pier is placed

so North is to a corner, which makes it clear quit easily. Famous last words, right?

Like the way you did your rails - gives the roof a nice low profile. I think that's going to be an issue for me since I purchased 4" rollers & V-tracks. The tracks were advertised as 3" wide but when they arrived they were 4". That's too wide to fit on a 4x4 - which is 3.5" per side - so now looking at adding a 2x6 on top of the 4x4 so the tracks won't hang over the edge. Contacted the vendor & he offered to accept a return & send some aluminum tracks which are 3" wide but don't have time at this point so will try to figure out a way to make the 4" ones work...

I decided to use good ol' steel, will clean and coat when the rains stop. The bottom of the rail is sealed against the wood, and the roof rolls quite easily. It has 14 polyurethane wheels carrying a 14' x 15' roof at a calculated

total weight of about 860 lbs. Each wheel is rated @ 350 lbs, so it feels like it is on butter when I open or close it.

I'll measure the height that my roof sits above, don't remember off hand. I don't think it is much different than yours will be, but I've been know to be wrong in the past. One benefit to the "V-track" is centering, the roof will

stay where it belongs. The way I did it, I have an additional 6 "outrigger wheels" that keep the roof centered on the track. That took some adjustment to keep things from binding. Looking back, I would have gone the route

that you are.

I appreciate the good words, it has been a labor of love, knowing what my end result will be, and the years of enjoyment it will bring. I have been enjoying watching your build as well, especially your new style ROR, or as I

refer to it as a, "Rip-Off-Roof!"

I'm pulling for a clear sky weekend for you, keep up your good work as well

Cheers

Kim