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Astrokev's ROR - The Build


Astrokev

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Managed to dig out the desk from the cabin and removed the top. Positioned the OSB template, marked out the laminate and cut out a slightly more attractive version of the new desk top. Pleased to report that it fitted into the space fine. I didn't have time to install the desk into the warm room, but I was able to put up a few of the wall battens that it will rest on. I also cut the metal box section from the old desk and screwed this back to the underside of the top to give it more structural support.

 

 

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Made good progress today. Here are a variety of pictures showing finishing touches to the warm room, which are fairly self-explanatory. The scope picture is the view from the desk.

The only picture not shown is of me running to the kitchen with blood pouring from my thumb - Stanley knives and carpet tiles are a risky combo ?.

I also put rubber sealing strips around the internal door, which now closes with a satisfying clunk. The seals will hopefully help retain whatever amount of heat I choose to put into the warm room!

So, the only internal jobs left on the list are to install electrics and then fit lights. I may give my electrician friend a call over the weekend, although getting my PC fixed may take priority. This has been playing up big-time lately and I can't figure out the problem; all I know is it's been as fragile as walking on egg-shells for the last few weeks and seems to be getting worse.

Outside jobs still to be done - laying a path and making some steps into the obsy, then doing a bit of landscaping and planting, to turn the building site back into something resembling a garden.

 

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5 hours ago, Adam J said:

That end wall behind the desk is crying out for a 32 inch 4k monitor. 

Interesting idea, as imaging wallpaper, but Is that really the best option for an observatory even with PIP?
At such a short  viewing distance your eyes would be having to constantly refocus from centre to edge.
A pair of monitors [or even three?] with some dihedral would be easier to set up and use.
Better than a curved monitor with all the problems of surface reflections and multitasking.

Even with my modest 34x52cm monitor it sometimes feels as if I am having to cover a lot of acreage with my eyes.
Particularly when typing text.  The tendency is to want to move backwards away from the screen viewed at 110cm.
This is probably why I use a lot of newlines and shorten my sentences to avoid 18" long lines of text. :glasses9:
 

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For me 4k is very very useful when processing a 2x2 mosaic made using a asi1600mm pro thats allot of pixels and hence resampling even with a 4k display. With a normal 1080p display you are only ever going to see a tiny little bit of the image at full resolution. Important stuff if you goal is to make prints of your work. I don't think that they make 4k monitor s in smaller size than 27inches?  

Edited by Adam J
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36 minutes ago, Dr_Ju_ju said:

… before fitting anything, I'd recommend Kev ponders what he wants where, and drill suitable holes in the desk for the cables etc.....

Sound advice!

I'll be drilling holes for cables once I've got a decent hole cutter. As you suggest, I need to figure out exactly what I want, and where. 

At present, the plan is to put dado power trunking a few inches above the desk. I need to consider what my power needs will be to estimate number of sockets. I'm aware of the - calculate how many you need and then double it approach! And then there's reduced voltage supply for the pier, and lighting, switches etc. A lot to think about. I'm very much a novice when it comes to digital imaging and scope control, so this is a pretty steep curve for me and am feeling my way a bit. I'm sure I'll be asking more stupid questions to help guide me!

A big 4K monitor would look rather nice though!

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Put 1\2 power outlets above the desk, for ad-hoc equipment, but personally, I'd run the dado beneath the desk, so most cables will be out of site, and clear the cable clutter from the desk area.

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  • 3 weeks later...

A while since I've posted on my build thread. After a bit of a break I'm now starting on the final push to get electrics installed, and to finish some exterior landscaping to tidy up the destroyed bit of garden on the site.

For the electrics, I won't repeat my planning in full here - I've posted this in the thread "Electrical layout...." I started a while back, but once the planning is finished I'll post the installation itself in this thread.

Looking forward to not having to trail the extension cable out every time I use the observatory (which, to be honest, has been all too little due to seemingly constant cloud cover since it was finished!).

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Started to think about laying a path to the observatory yesterday and did a tour of local paving merchants. I still haven't finally decided what to do with the immediate surroundings of the build regarding "landscaping". I want to put stone chippings around the immediate edge to help reduce weeds, but then I also want to plant medium size bushes to the south to help shade the sun-facing wall. Didn't think it was going to be so difficult to decide how best to do this. 

And then there's the step into the observatory. Do I go for a narrow step, or one made-up of large paving slabs. Decisions, decisions!

Looking forward to my local sparks coming round in the morning; at least I can hopefully get that moving. Although I've only used the observatory a handful of times due to endless cloud, I'm already fed-up of having to trail extension cables around in the middle of the night.

Edited by Astrokev
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*Sigh*

That's another thing to add to my list, then :)

Having a path between the house and the observatory is clearly sensible, but wasn't something I'd really thought about.  There is a noticeable "groove" worn in the grass between the workshop and observatory at the moment...

James

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4 hours ago, JamesF said:

 There is a noticeable "groove" worn in the grass between the workshop and observatory at the moment...

To help reduce mud, I laid a long offcut of EPDM across the lawn and along the side of the observatory. This worked well but, of course, has killed what grass there was underneath! As I want to put the paved path in a different spot, this means I'll have to re-seed this area, or convert it to stone chippings. I need to put my garden designer hat on and think it through.

Edited by Astrokev
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The other thing I've started to realise whilst using the scope room is that there isn't as much space as I thought. The shelving, although proving very useful, eats into the room and I have to be a little careful moving around the scope. This is probably made worse by me currently having the laptop in the scope room. This sits on a small stool and I'm using the warm room office chair to park myself. Until I can get the electrics sorted I also have cabling trailing around the floor, which doesn't help. Whilst I can work around it, the desk chair always seems to be in the wrong place!

So, the solution is to either move the laptop into the warm room (which is the plan once all the electrics are finished), put the laptop on the shelving (I would need to make a wider support for it, as it doesn't currently fit), or make/buy the serving trolley idea mentioned earlier in the thread, to put the laptop on, so I can move it around when needed.

It's only when you start using the observatory (or anything else for that matter) that you become aware of how well it works. I clearly still need to optimise the space!

 

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A thought...  Attach a wireless keyboard\mouse and external display (larger\easier to see), to the laptop, which can be folded down and put somewhere safer... should then be less cables getting the way.....

As for the path\garden, as I was loosing valuable time mowing, twice a week, I just removed the grass and built a large fish pond and dome, then planted up the rest with dwarf species & annuals.

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Had a meeting with the electrician buddy this morning. I don't need to bury the cable in a trench, which is great :)

There's a bit of prep work I need to do but the electrics should go in around 4-5 weeks (he's obviously a busy man).

On 15/04/2019 at 07:32, Dr_Ju_ju said:

A thought...  Attach a wireless keyboard\mouse and external display (larger\easier to see), to the laptop, which can be folded down and put somewhere safer... should then be less cables getting the way.....

As for the path\garden, as I was loosing valuable time mowing, twice a week, I just removed the grass and built a large fish pond and dome, then planted up the rest with dwarf species & annuals.

Thanks Julian. Yes, I need to give a bit of thought to the cabling - some good ideas there for me to think about.

As for the grass, I already have a largish pond, but will definitely be doing some more planting around the obsy :)

Edited by Astrokev
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Currently trying to design a path and steps into the observatory. On the face of it, this seems straight forward enough, but need to make decisions on whether to have one step or two, and how wide to make them and the path. Balancing off cost vs functionality. 

May be brave tomorrow and see whether the local stores or garden centres have what I need. And there was me thinking I’d seen the last of mixing concrete/mortar when I finished the foundations. 

As an aside, the inside of the scope room was very warm this afternoon. Not worryingly so, but I have some concern that heat build-up in summer may be too great. I therefore need to start thinking about fitting ventilation vents in the rolling roof I think. 

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Garden lights along the path are a good idea for night access to an observatory.  Just small ones that are charged up in daylight and light up at night.

Edited by Gina
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5 hours ago, Gina said:

Garden lights along the path are a good idea for night access to an observatory.  Just small ones that are charged up in daylight and light up at night.

Thanks for the good suggestions. My garden is fairly dark, but probably has enough light (regrettably) to see the path and steps!

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I see.  Mine isn't - unless next door have their quadrillion candlepower floodlight on.  They don't usually have it on for very long and I can always ask them to turn it off.

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