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JamesF's observatory build


JamesF

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22 hours ago, JamesF said:

Yeah, they seem to be working fine now.  Some of it might just be down to manufacturing, to be honest.  I bet a fair bit (if not all) of this stuff is knocked out in factories in China without a huge amount of attention to quality control (given how much it costs, how could you?).

Bending the strips around corners where the strip folds at right angles (such as I have in the walls of the scope room) is a doddle.  It was just making the U shape that meant the more awkward fittings.  It does look like you can get splitters for the controller output though, so in retrospect perhaps I should just have passed on the "U" and just gone for two parallel rows.

James

bit late for you, but, I've seen right angle connectors that would have removed he wee u bends...

 

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Didn't get much done today as I had other things to get on with, but had an hour or so this afternoon that allowed me to get the cladding on three sides of the last pier.  I'll be very pleased if I can finish it off tomorrow.  I still have to drill holes in the tops for the pier adaptors, but I don't think that should be as messy.

James

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Not a huge amount of progress today -- spent much of the day mowing grass, visiting some of my bees at a local farm and working out what my FIL had done to break the electrics when I got back.

I did however manage to get the final piece of cladding onto the last pier (woohoo!), completed the scope room cupboard and had a sweep up.  Probably need to get the vacuum cleaner in to get rid of the last of the dust.

So, now I can order the flooring.  I can't decide whether it's worth sealing the ply with a coat of varnish before I lay the floor tiles.  I don't think it should slow things down much (if at all) as even if I order the tiles tonight I don't think I'll be in a position to fit them until the weekend.  Need to have a quick scan through my list of things to do to make sure there's nothing else I absolutely must do before the floor goes down, too.

James

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Swept, hoovered, hoovered again and then worked barefoot to get about 80% of the scope room floor sealed this evening.  It actually went really quickly.  I was planning on doing the rest of the scope room and the warm room tomorrow, but I'm half-tempted to give what I've done a second coat instead, then lay the tiles for about half the floor (assuming they arrive by Saturday) and seal the rest after that's done.  Whilst more complicated it would allow me to move more stuff out of the house sooner.  I'll see what I think of the first coat tomorrow morning.  I might even be able to sneak out during the day and get some done if work goes well.

James

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Some stainless allen bolts arrived today, so I could finish fixing down two pier adapters.  I haven't made the third one yet (the first two came courtesy of SGL members who no longer needed them), but I'm in no desperate hurry to get that done.

What didn't arrive today were the tiles for the floor, though I wasn't entirely sure they would anyhow.  So, I hoovered again, put on my bare feet and used up the remainder of my first tin of varnish giving the floor that I sealed yesterday a second coat.  I was forced to decline an offer of help from one of the cats, though he would have made a much bigger roller, to be fair :D

I think I probably need the tiles to arrive now, though the weather is forecast to be kind this weekend and there's plenty of outside stuff I can be getting on with.

James

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Gorgeous day today, though it started a little chilly despite the sunshine.  I mowed around the observatory and did some prep work for laying the foam tiles, and as suggested by others used some off-cuts of EPDM to close off the gaps between the piers and the floor (though I haven't fixed them down yet):

obsy-build-102.jpg

Because it was such a lovely day I had the roof rolled back and I thought I'd get a picture of the mounts "in situ".  Some SGL members may start to recognise bits of kit at this point :)

obsy-build-103.jpg

And between doing other jobs I started to move some things down to the observatory to clear space in the house, which has involved finding some things I'd pretty much forgotten I had, they've been stored so long whilst we've been doing work on the house.  I'm still not quite sure how I have so many of these.

obsy-build-104.jpg

Need to give the locking bolts a bit of a clean-up before they go back onto mounts.  There's some corrosion around the threads on all of them and one is particularly bad.  Might need to look into something I can put on them to help prevent the dew getting to them that isn't likely to get spread around places I'd rather it wasn't.

Disappointingly though, my floor tiles were due to arrive "by 8pm today" and there is no sign of them as yet :(  It seems unlikely I'll get them this weekend now.  Looks like I might be sealing more of the floor whilst I wait.

James

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How many mounts have you got?  Wonder why there's an odd number of weights - normally 2 supplied with each mount.  Maybe one is hiding!

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49 minutes ago, JamesF said:

obsy-build-104.jpg

Need to give the locking bolts a bit of a clean-up before they go back onto mounts.  There's some corrosion around the threads on all of them and one is particularly bad.  Might need to look into something I can put on them to help prevent the dew getting to them that isn't likely to get spread around places I'd rather it wasn't.

I would suggest fixing them all together, but then you might be in for a long wait.

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Just now, Stub Mandrel said:

I would suggest fixing them all together, but then you might be in for a long wait.

I believe sir meant to post in the "dreadful jokes" thread :D

James 

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10 minutes ago, Gina said:

How many mounts have you got?  Wonder why there's an odd number of weights - normally 2 supplied with each mount.  Maybe one is hiding!

I have three that would have had white counterweights, so I'm not sure.  I do have at least one more counterweight, but that's from my EQ3-2 and is black.  It's a mystery.

James

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I have two white (NEQ6) and two black (EQ8).  Yes - just the two mounts, though may have a third is I ever get round to finishing my lightweight DIY mount for widefield imaging using ex-SLR lenses.

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4 hours ago, Rusted said:

Looks like an 0-6-2.  I was wondering where the boiler and firebox had gone. :tongue2:

Aha!  A joke that almost no-one under fifty will understand :D

James

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Little to report today.  Mostly I spent the day mowing, killing weeds and melting down old comb that I've removed from beehives.  I did however find time to get a coat of varnish on the remainder of the scope room floor.  Since the flooring hasn't arrived yet (Tuesday now, allegedly) I decided I might as well try to finish that off.

It has occurred to me today that perhaps Yodel are so named because if you expect your parcel to arrive on time you might as well go sing for it from the top of a high mountain :(

James

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