From Micro Obsy to Dual Pier Observatory - via Hard Work, RSI, Back Ache & Melting Credit Card!

[ArmyAirForce]

July 14th - After a little work on the front roof wall, I took one of the NEQ6 mounts, both scopes, camera, laptop and some tools out to the observatory. I fitted the mount to the solar system pier and mounted my 200PDS scope, to get an indication of its height above the roof runner. As it turns out, it doesn't stick up as much as I expected it might, which in turn means the front flap in the wall doesn't need to be as big. The first picture has the roof outlined in red, showing the smaller flap.

The flap can now be two cladding planks high, with the fixed area above two planks high. This will give a larger support to hold the roof at the front, which is less likely to sag.

[ArmyAirForce]

After some pictures and measurements, the 200PDS was removed and the Evo80ED fitted, with the Baader ND3.8 film and ASI178M camera. It was quite cloudy with only a few small holes in the clouds. They were big enough gaps to catch two videos, top and bottom of the Sun, through the solar continuum filter. So pier one has now made first light!

Here's the full disc, white light Sun from this morning.

[ArmyAirForce]

The gaps didn't last long and I even felt a couple of fine spots of rain. The full disc was reduced in size for presentation, but I took some crops from the original large image of each cluster of sunspots. Here's AR13055. 5% stacked of 3,000 frames captured.

Just before I packed everything away, I positioned the Evo80 in its parked position. On this pier, it is about flush with the roof runner. The deepsky pier is about two inches taller than the solar system pier, so even with the slight extra height, the smaller roof flap will still be large enough to clear the scope.

The rest of the day was spent working on the fixed part of the front roof panel.

[ArmyAirForce]

I was away with my Jeep from Friday to Sunday, so got nothing done over the weekend. Today, with it being a tad hot, I did a little on the roof front wall, but had little inclination to go out and dig foundations for the roof runners!! Perhaps that should wait a day or two??

[ArmyAirForce]

July 19th - I put a few more nails into the roof front panel today, now that the glue has dried and the aluminium angle could be unclamped from the wood. Once done, I mixed up some filler and filled all the nail and screw holes, which can probably be sanded tomorrow. Over the weekend, the postman also brought two 8 inch diameter steel discs which will form basis for the second pier adapter.

[Swoop1]

3 hours ago, ArmyAirForce said:

Over the weekend, the postman also brought two 8 inch diameter steel discs which will form basis for the second pier adapter.

Bet that made you popular😉

[ArmyAirForce]

@Swoop1 He rang the bell and waited as he said he didn't want to drop them through the letterbox onto the tiled floor. The postlady when she is delivering, comes around to the back garden, as she knows I'll either be out there or in my workshop around the back!

[ArmyAirForce]

July 20th - Things cooled down quite a bit today, though the workshop was still warm. All the filler was sanded on the roof front wall and it was given two coats of paint. It was the end of the school year today, so my daughter was home soon after 1pm and I didn't get anything else done.

Here's the two steel discs for the second pier adapter. They need drilling for the threaded rod that will glue into the concrete pier and further holes for threaded rod to separate the two plates. Like the other one, I'll use some steel tubes over the studding to give a wider, more stable footing for the upper plate to clamp down on and will keep the gap between the two as small as possible. I also need to make a small support to go between the top steel plate and the mount itself. The picture of the scope and mount in the previous posts should give a good idea of the final adapter.

[ArmyAirForce]

July 21st - School holidays and time to keep child entertained! Hmmm? "How about helping me with some painting?"

Well, I got away with it for the first coat of shed paint on the inside of the roof, but had to do the second on my own. The roof front wall section was also painted on the inside.

Later in the afternoon, I marked up and drilled the steel disc pier adapters. The two plates were joined with duct tape and two 5mm holes were drilled first. I then used some small bolts to fasten the plates together securely. The other holes followed, gradually going up in drill size to 10mm. The plate with the eight large holes is the base plate that will bolt to the pier with four bolts. The other four will be for studding to support the upper plate. The smaller holes in the upper plate will hold a solid cylinder in place. That will be recessed for the stub on the bottom of the NEQ6 and also has the peg for the azimuth bolts to push against.

[ArmyAirForce]

July 22nd - There was light rain this morning, so I decided today was an indoor working day. I continued working on the pier adapter. The next step was the spacer block between the top plate and the mount. The spacer was made from a high density resin, like the original mount adapter.

A rough block of the resin was cut into a disc on my bandsaw and sanded pretty close to the final diameter. This was because the clearance on my mini lathe was borderline. Once I knew it was just clear of the bed, it was mounted in the chuck with some studding and two nuts to clamp the resin. The face and edges were machined smooth.

A small recess was machined into one end to clear a lip on the bottom of the mount. The spacer was then removed and turned around so the jaws could grip this lip and the bolt could be removed. Next, the hole was enlarged to allow for the threaded boss that would attach the mount to a tripod.

[ArmyAirForce]

My lathe started making some odd noises during the machining. I stopped to investigate and found the drive belt had started to shred itself. It doesn't owe me anything as it is 30 years old! I ordered a replacement belt and hoped the original would hold out until the spacer was complete. It did survive for that, but I didn't want to use it for one other job left to do on the adapter. More of that later.

With the basic spacer machined, it was drilled for the fixing bolts and the azimuth peg. On the first pier adapter, used on my original observatory, I made a new peg so that my tripod could retain the original and still be used. On this adapter, I just unscrewed the peg from the tripod that came with the new mount I bought. This still leaves me with one tripod that has an azimuth peg fitted.

The mounting holes had these threaded inserts epoxied in place. Bolts into these inserts hold the spacer firmly on the top steel disc and prevent it from rotating.

[ArmyAirForce]

Here's the top part of the adapter, along with the original, just needing the spacer bolts trimming down by 10mm.

The whole top plate and spacer was test fitted to the NEQ6 mount, to make sure the centre mounting bolt wouldn't interfere with the Alt/Az adjustment bolts.

[ArmyAirForce]

The spacer and adapter plates have been painted with a metallic black Hammerite paint and were left to bake in my curing cabinet. The top of the spacer wasn't painted to allow the mount to slide left and right more smoothly for polar alignment.

The last lathe job was put on hold due to the state of the drive belt. In my scrap metal box, I found the remains of the tube bought six years ago for the old mount. It was bought to make four tube spacers that slot over the top and bottom plate bolts. They give the top plate a wider footprint to sit on, eliminating movement as a result from flexing of the joining bolts.

Last time, I cut the tubes to the approximate length, then used the lathe to trim the ends square and cut each tube to exactly the same length. That will be done when the replacement belt comes for the lathe.

That was another day over, but an awkward part of the project virtually out of the way.

[ArmyAirForce]

July 23rd - I spent the morning in B&Q's - plural. The Durham store, useless as ever, didn't have what I needed, so after paying for some small bits of hardware I'd already picked up, I drove over to Washington for the timber. By the time I got home and unstrapped the wood off the roofrack, it was heading towards 1pm. After lunch, I took the 4.8 metre timbers out to the observatory and started clamping them in place to work out some lengths and footing positions.

The runner supports were clamped at both sides and roughly aligned by eye. I could then measure down the supports the 6 metres of the aluminium runners to get an end point. That then set the footing position.

[ArmyAirForce]

Here's a photoshopped view showing the roof in the closed and open positions. Despite making the roof section another plank taller at the front, as it rolls to the open position, it drops down far enough to be below the hedge line from the scope's perspective. Once the main runner supports are in place, I'll be adding some diagonal bracing to prevent sagging, bowing sideways and tipping.

With the first footing position located, I started digging again. It seems like ages since I was doing the ground works and I'm not enjoying digging dirt! Once more I was back to a small trowel, digging around stones, brick and tree roots. It was slow going. I just got the hole finished and I started to feel rain. The sky looked threatening, so I packed away all the tools and brought the timber indoors. The rain wasn't getting any heavier, so rather than pack the mixer away again, I pushed on the got the first footing filled with concrete. Another fence post bracket will be bolted to this, just like the original observatory floor structure. There'll be another for the other side and one in the middle. The centre footing will be to attach some diagonal braces which will prevent sideways movement of the vertical posts.

[ArmyAirForce]

July 24th - I forced myself out again this morning to dig more dirt. I had a feeling it wasn't going to go well and it didn't! The right end foundation was close to where the 24 year old tree had been. We had the stump ground out a few weeks ago, but it turned out that one big root went straight through the location of my foundation. The root was about eight inches diameter! How was I going to get that out?

The answer wasn't quick, but it did work. I found a 32mm flat wood bit in my workshop, fitted it in my mains drill and started turning tree root into shavings! The yellow marks the planned hole, which doesn't stand out too well in this picture. The red shows the path of the tree root.

By the time I'd broken out enough tree root, the hole had manages to enlarge itself off to the left where I big lump of root came out in one go. I'd also found quite a few large lumps of brick in there too. Digging it all out took most of the morning.

I measured up the centre foundation and dug that one out after lunch. That was much easier going, with just large stones and finger sized roots to remove.

[ArmyAirForce]

Both holes had their concrete blocks concreted in, with the over sized hole filled with a mix of concrete and bits of brick that had come out of the hole.

With the concrete poured and curing, I tidied up outside and moved to the workshop. The remaining fence post, bought with two others for the observatory base uprights, was cut into two three foot sections and has now had three layers of shed paint. I also painted the end grain in waterproof PVA glue. The uprights and roof runner supports will be brown, rather than the light green of the observatory. This will make them stand out less from the park side in the winter, when the hawthorn hedge isn't so dense. Inset is some of the hardware I got from B&Q yesterday for the roof.

Hopefully the concrete will be hard enough to work on tomorrow. I need to drill and bolt the metal fence post supports to the concrete foundations. While concrete normally takes a couple of days to dry ( and a month to fully cure ), I'll actually be drilling into the pre-cast concrete blocks, rather than the just poured concrete.

The roof runners can then be assembled and painted and when that's done, I can start assembling the roof itself and the end will be in sight for the major construction work. There'll still be fitting out the inside, running power there, an alarm etc., but I'm hoping that within the next couple of weeks or so, it will be watertight and useable.

[Swoop1]

I feel your pain dealing with the roots.

My neighbour has a 25 foot+ Leylandii on their side of the boundary and on more than one occasion I have had to remove roots from it that were causing mounds in our lawn. I use the big hole and bow saw method, though have had to resort to the electric chain saw for one pig of a root.

[ArmyAirForce]

@Swoop1 The root belonged to the 30 foot, 24 year old pine seen in the very first picture of the thread. The guy who took the stumps out, only went down so far. The one I had to drill through had obviously escaped his machine.

July 25th - It took a while to carry all my tools and the timber back down to the site again this morning and just as I'd finished, I felt the first spots of rain! Fortunately it didn't last long. One piece of timber had already been cut to fit the rear of the observatory, but was left over long. I used the second runner support, clamped against the first and the observatory, to set the angle down to the support. The upright was clamped to the runner and after lots of measuring and eyeing up the line, the metal base plate was drilled and bolted to the concete.

It was un-clamped for a short time to allow the mating face to be painted with shed paint, along with the rest of the runner. Additional pieces of timber were used to help support it vertical while the upright was screwed into the bracket and the runner screwed to the upright.

Edited July 25, 2022 by ArmyAirForce

[ArmyAirForce]

I put my adjustable square on the first runner and adjusted it until my level was reading horizontal. I then used that angle to set the angle of the second runner. Despite the small size of the level, standing back and eyeing up the two runners showed them to be parallel. So that got the two runners at the same angle, but they also had to be parallel in width.

If they weren't parallel in width, the roof would either bind as it tried to roll off, or the wheels could roll off the runners. To keep them the same distance apart, I clamped two pieces of wood together, between the runners at the observatory end of the runners. I was then able to slide it down the runners to the vertical support end and use it to set the width of the second runner. With the vertical support clamped in place, its base was drilled and the mount bolted to the concrete foundation.

[ArmyAirForce]

The vertical support was now anchored in place, so the runner was un-clamped from it, painted a couple of coats of shed paint and once dry, screwed back in place. Both the top ends of the runners were screwed to the observatory from the inside and out.

I began to start to mark out the first of the diagonal braces. These would extend up from the base of the observatory to the half way point of the runner. I'd just made the first cut, when I noticed the sky looking rather dark behind me. A quick check of the MET office website showed what was coming my way. I packed up all the tools into the shed and took the diagonals, shed paint and a few other odds and ends to the workshop to carry on. It wasn't long before the rain was hammering down!

Back at the workshop, the three remaining ends of the diagonals were cut on the bandsaw and then they were given a first coat of shed paint and left to dry. I'm about to go and give them another coat. The postman also delivered a small jiffy bag this morning which was the new drive belt for the lathe. That was fitted and the motor given a quick run to check it.

Edited July 25, 2022 by ArmyAirForce
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[Swoop1]

If there is one thing that interested parties should take from this thread, it is your attention to detail- measuring, dry fitting, painting before fixing etc.

Of course, there is also the inadequacy of my workshop and tool kit that is exposed as a glaring fault on my part😁

[ArmyAirForce]

@Swoop1 I'm a little spoiled on the workshop and tool front!

Had another great day and have just come indoors. Pictures to sort and edit and will post the update later tonight.

[ArmyAirForce]

July 26th - Late last night, I machined all the spacers for the second pier adapter. The lathe sounded much smoother with the new drive belt. They were painted and left to dry overnight. This morning, before going out to the observatory, I test assembled the adapter. The next step for this will be to drill the second pier and attach the lower plate to the top of the concrete.

You can see how the tubes give a much wider footing for the upper plate and prevent any torsional movement.

[ArmyAirForce]

After tinkering with the adapter, I carried the bracing timbers and some tools out to the observatory. Last night, I'd also painted two more eight feet lengths, three coats of brown shed paint. The pre-cut parts were attached first, below the main roof runner.

The pre-painted timbers were then cut with angles on each end to attach to the observatory rear wall and the roof runners. These help to keep the runner timbers from bowing.