DaveS's Obsy Build. First thoughts.

[DaveS]

Not formally, no. However I did take a stepladder out to the location and put my eye line at 2.5m to see if I could clear the trees. There's one particularly annoying specimen directly south of the obsy location though the neighbours are amenable to my pruning it as they only use the house as a second home. I have their home 'phone number so I'll give them a bell. They're not far away, only in Weymouth.

[Astrokev]

3 hours ago, Davey-T said:

Have you actually drawn out your 360 degree horizon and seen how much height you need to reach the usual suspects ? bearing in mind that trees have a habit of getting taller so not much point having the height if you need it to be even higher in a couple of years.

As I mentioned I've got a pier that can be raised up a foot but rarely need to, but then I try to only image stuff when it's straight up through the murk 

Dave

Just curious Dave. How well do height adjustable piers hold their alignment. Does it need fine adjustment after raising, or is "approximate" good enough for what you do? They certainly sound a really good solution.

[Astrokev]

2 hours ago, DaveS said:

Not formally, no. However I did take a stepladder out to the location and put my eye line at 2.5m to see if I could clear the trees. There's one particularly annoying specimen directly south of the obsy location though the neighbours are amenable to my pruning it as they only use the house as a second home. I have their home 'phone number so I'll give them a bell. They're not far away, only in Weymouth.

I find pruning a foot off the bottom works best  

[Davey-T]

1 minute ago, Astrokev said:

Just curious Dave. How well do height adjustable piers hold their alignment. Does it need fine adjustment after raising, or is "approximate" good enough for what you do? They certainly sound a really good solution.

Built it myself, its 200mm square steel tube on heavy 75mm angle iron legs buried in 18" of concrete, can raise up 300mm and be locked any height in between and holds PA well, needs to as I'm imaging using a 10"SCT on it, not sure if it would be good enough for a sky modelling mount like Daves ASA though.

No idea how good commercially available ones are, they're blooming expensive and claim to keep PA when raised.

Got a video of it somewhere going up and down if you're interested I can PM a link

Dave

[DaveS]

I did have a thought about the telescopic pier, wondering how well it would hold alignment from one rise to the next. That and the cost. OK the 'scope is pricey and the mount more so, therefore trying to keep the other costs down.

[Davey-T]

Not sure if they're accurate enough for sky modelled mounts Dave, mines fine when guided.

Dave

[DaveS]

Yeah, I was looking at one of These to put the mount on. I think I saw one of them at Astrofest with 17" Planewave on it. I think a 12" ODK will be fine.

[DaveS]

Haha, just noticed I've got my first "dot" and finally reached the main sequence .

[mikeDnight]

That's a terrifying price Dave. My own pier is a simple steel construction made by a local sheet metal worker, 6" square and 7' 6" tall, with 18" set in concrete, and it cost me £35. The top is a flat steel plate onto which I bolt my EQ mount, but I could quite easily have attached an adjustable plate as in the image if I needed to. I'm only a visual observer so things don't need to be as accurately set and aligned. However, if you were to take a picture of that expensive pier to a local sheet metal worker, I feel certain he'd construct one at a fraction of the price. Don't show him the price on that one though!

[Davey-T]

What doesn't seem good engineering design to me about all commercially produced piers is the relatively small bases compared to the height, my homemade ones have a 600mm square base and 500mm outrigger legs.

Dave

[andrew s]

How can first thoughts take 134 ish posts and 6 pages. It should have been built by now ?

Regards Andrew 

[JamesF]

To be fair, Dave did start the thread even before he'd bought the house.

James

[Gina]

If you think this thread is long you should see some of mine!  ?

Edited March 6, 2019 by Gina

[Astrokev]

58 minutes ago, Gina said:

If you think this thread is long you should see some of mine!  ?

....and mine ? (Although my build is nearly finished at long last)

[mikeDnight]

It's good to think things through carefully, reviewing options and seeking advice, before punching an unpluggable hole in your bank account!

[andrew s]

1 minute ago, mikeDnight said:

It's good to think things through carefully, reviewing options and seeking advice, before punching an unpluggable hole in your bank account!

I quite agree. It was the "first thoughts" that amused me.

Regards Andrew 

[DaveS]

Well, the practicalities are in hand. I have quotes for the observatory platform, and for a smaller one to carry a free-standing pier / mount / scope which I already have. Start on this is waiting for tree-work permission. Electrical work for power to the garage which will also feed the small platform and obsy is underway, though held up by unavoidably overrunning work to make the garage dry and safe.

Having my first idea of the dome-on-a-box rejected as "permitted development" may be no bad thing, as it's forced me to go back to first principles and reassess what it is I'm trying to do, and how I can achieve those aims.

If it looks like I'm flailing around getting nowhere it's because I want / need to be very sure of what I'm going to do before I start doing anything that cannot be undone.

At some point, hopefully soon, I'll be in a position to start a build thread. 

 

Thinks...there is a local general builder / painter / carpenter who has already done some work for me making good some duff paintwork. Would it be a cop-out to get him to help me?

[JamesF]

12 minutes ago, DaveS said:

Thinks...there is a local general builder / painter / carpenter who has already done some work for me making good some duff paintwork. Would it be a cop-out to get him to help me?

If you're not confident of being able to do the work yourself and can explain to him exactly what you're after then this seems like a sensible plan.

James

[Davey-T]

37 minutes ago, DaveS said:

Thinks...there is a local general builder / painter / carpenter who has already done some work for me making good some duff paintwork. Would it be a cop-out to get him to help me?

There's bound to be retired, bored, builder, handyman around that would be only too pleased to give you a hand, the local pub is the best place to find them 

Dave

[Gina]

I was very glad to accept a day's help cladding my observatory, handling 5m lengths of timber, from two very nice SGL members

[andrew s]

2 hours ago, Davey-T said:

There's bound to be retired, bored, builder, handyman around that would be only too pleased to give you a hand, the local pub is the best place to find them 

Dave

I thought there was an app called timber or something similar for that kind of thing?

Regards Andrew 

[DaveS]

3 hours ago, JamesF said:

If you're not confident of being able to do the work yourself and can explain to him exactly what you're after then this seems like a sensible plan.

James

I think I'm the very definition of "cack-handed". I could probably use a powered mitre saw with cutting guides, and an electric drill / screwdriver, but I have quite strong cross-dominance and muscular imbalance which makes lining things up by eye problematic. I can use a hand saw or jigsaw free-hand provided the tolerances are quite relaxed, eg when I was cutting wood to put some floor boards in the loft, but where construction is concerned with lengths and angles having to be exact, well.... and as for banging in nails *shudder*.

[DaveS]

I haven't updated this for a long time.

The small platform has been built

And the Bay Tree given a severe pruning.

The Palm might also be due for the chop, but I hate cutting down trees without good reason. My neighbor is OK with giving her tree a good pruning as well.

The big tree will have to go, but I will plant two or three dwarf / semi-dwarf fruit trees in its place.

The landscaper is coming on Tue to finish the rendering on the platform, and discuss the further work in the garden.

I might be able to squeeze a 2.2m square obsy in, oriented N/S/E/W, with the run off rails forming the top of a pergola.

[Gina]

That ruddy great pole could do with pruning too 😂

[JamesF]

2 minutes ago, Gina said:

That ruddy great pole could do with pruning too 😂

Tempting, isn't it?  "Oh, I was just walking past with my chainsaw and I slipped.  Before I knew it, the pole had fallen down" :D

James