My home observatory is finally under way (Final update 16-07-2023, pretty much finished)

[George Gearless]

After having viewed a ton of youtube videos, many of which have been found by way of this forum, I've finally decided to make an observatory for myself. I'll be working on it on and off over the summer, my work schedule and wheather permitting. So it's not going to be one of those "look what I built over the weeked". But I do plan for it to be up and running before the dark 'season'. And hopefully quite a bit before that. Anyway, here's my meager progress so far.

 

 

 

This is the corner of my garden where I'm going to place it. As you can see there's already a small terrase. Unfortunately it is so unevenly laid (or just old and sunken) that I could not build directly upon it. It's going to be a 3x3m roll off observatory. So one concrete sunken pillar in each corner, and one in the middle of each side. The floor is going to be raised 10cm from the stones, because water usually gathers here since it's the lowest part of the garden.

 

 

Here, they're all snugly planted and I've also dug the foundation for the pier.

 

 

The foundation is 50x50x50 cm. (approx). At the top left of the picture, you can see one of the 8 concrete pillars that I dug in as foundation for the observatory structure itself. It's adjustable, which makes it very easy to level once I start actually building.

 

 

The all important mountholder. I've used two breakdisks (RIDEX 82B0037) where the center hole fits precisely and snugly around the base of my Skywatcher EQ6-R Pro. It took me quite a while to find the disks that had the dimensions I needed. So if you're looking too, here's a link to the disks. It's a perfect fit. I did need to get four holes (ø14) drilled in each of them, for the m12 rods to go through. I had a local blacksmith do it for me. The steel is hard as you wouldn't believe, so I figured I'd just wreck 4 or 5 drill bits before getting through with a handheld drill.

 

 

 

I used two cut off rebars to act as counter for when I fasten the mount. It looks like they're welded on, but they're actually glued with two-component glue. My father has a hobby welder and it melted the rebars just fine, but hardly made a dent in the thick disks. Since it's not going to bear any stress sideways, but only needs to be kept in place while tightening the tensioning nut, glueing it made for the most practical solution.

 

 

 

I placed this 25cm cardboard on top of the rebar frame (actually, one and a bit. One was not long enough). Filled the hole with concrete and then the tube. Sunk the squidlike mount into the concrete, and two days later...voila. I npw have a "working" pier to do sun observations from :). 

 

Next, I'll be laying down the frame of the building and the floor. It'll probably be a couple of weeks before I have some building time again. 

I can fix an outlet in the house, and rotate the tyres of my car without too much fuss. But beond that, I haven't done much DIY. So as small as this 'shed' may seem to you, it's quite a big undertaking on my part. Fortunately, I'm not under serous time pressure. I have all summer. But it is soooo satisfying seeing it take form. Not to mention it is going to be so much easier making time for my favourite passtime on clear winter nights.

Will update.

 

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------Update 19-06-2023------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Update 19-06-2023

 

My summer holiday started a few days ago, so now I've been able to kick this building thing into gear. I'm fortunate to have the assistance of my 80 year old dad, who dispite his formal education as a math and physics teacher, has undertaken many a building project in his time. His advice and help has been invaluable. Here are some picture updates:

 

 

Laying the foundation planks took a lot longer than anticipated. I relaid them twice! My dad insisted that it was laid down to perfection. Not just a mules hair off complete level would satisfy him. As he explained, and this is sound advice for all, if you make even the slightest compromise on the foundation, that small error will be multiplied many times as you progress. While I was perfectly willing to accept a few discrepancies here and there, my dad stuck to his guns and insisted on nothing less than perfection. My dad's a smart guy. 

 

 

 

Same build-time, different angle to give an indication of the size. It's 3x3 meters, outside measurement.

 

 

It's starting to look like a building. I deliberated long and hard on whether to structually support the diagonal with planks. The building isn't going to have a roof that will give any structual support and give rigidity. The steel bands on the diagonal is a good way to give the structure the support it needs to not collaps and fold sideways. It's quick and easy to fit, and realy doesn't take any measurement. Just roughly place them at the diagonal and tighten them with a pair of pliers. It renders the structure completely rigid and sturdy.

 

 

I was fortunate enough that the pier happened to be situated in the middle of one of the floor boards. It would have been a nightmare to trim 4 different boards to make a complete cirkel. Or even just two. But as it was, a screw, a piece of string tied to a pencil, and you have a (almost) perfect circle to saw out. I was terribly pleased with how it turned out. When my dad inspected it, he nodded in brief acknowledgment, and then proceeded to critique the one misaligned floorboard *sigh*. I love that guy :).

 

 

Here's a wider shot of the floor halfway done.

 

 

Floor all done, and the clouds started rolling in, pregnant with rain. So I had to quickly cover it with a tarpaulin, because the floorboards haven't been treated yet. I'll most likely just fit some linolium floor on them when I'm done. Again with the assistance of my dad, I managed to get the door fitted also before it started pouring. My home observatory is starting to look the part :).

 

Will update soon.

 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Update 16-07-2023------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Finished! Well, pretty much

 

The outer shell of my observatory is finished. I still have quite a bit of interior 'decorating' to do. But by and large, my building project is finished. 

But not without hitting a rather large snag. The roof leaked. A lot. The reason was that I'd used too light timber to make the frame light, and the wooden boards were so heavy, that the beams supporting the roof, bent down like the belly of a pig. This meant that the lowest part of the roof was actually in the middle of the roof. Not great. This is precisely where the bitumen shingles overlap, and so the water ran back underneath the top shingle, and onto the wooden boards. And subsequently, down into the observatory. There really wasn't anything else to do about it, but to remove the shingles the wooden boards, and raise the one side of the roof even more to achieve the declination/inclination needed. It was a whole days worth of work. And a whole day of swearing and cursing my own stupidity.

Painted the whole thing with a wood-protecting coat of oil-based black paint. The inside as well, to give at least some protection against falling dew.

 

I had initially only planned for the observatory to be a "shed to cover my pier and telescope". Nothing more. But the size has pleasantly surprised me. I have way more room than I thought I'd have. When I planned the first steps, I envisioned myself walking around the telescope, looking in various directions. I am used to stepping over and walking around my fully extended tripod. And this takes a lot of floor room. Using a pier, I realize that a lot of this space can now be used. The observatory is 2,86X2,86m (inner measurement). So my initial plan to only have a small shelf in the corner for my laptop, is now exchanged with a full (albeit slim) desk with permanent flat-screen and my older stationary computer. It's probably something I'll make out of the left over boards from the build. 

And here it is (sorry about the mess). Roof to the side, and door is open.

 

  

 

You can juuust see the white dew-shield at the top of my telescope

 

And from the inside:

 

 

 

I'm putting down a floor of interlinking yoga mats, for a pleasant stand during long observation sessions. The picture doesn't do it's size justice. But I hope you get the idea. As you can see, there's a smudge of black paint on the cardboard tube in which the steel enforced concrete is. I've since learned that the tube is not only cardboard, but contains a plastic membrane to keep it watertight while the concrete is curing. I'm still debating if I should just paint it and let it be. Or strip the cardboard off, and live with the not so pleasing looking bare concrete. The smudge of black pain is just a test to see how well the paint stuck.

So, for all intents and purposes, I can now do in my observatory, what I previously had to do on a tripod on the terrasse. But there are still many things that I will be doing to the inside over the next months, to make my observation and photography sessions even more comfortable and pleasurable. Power, PC desk, decorations, watertight equipment boxes, shelves and so on. But I can now reasonably say that I have my own observatory.

 

Can hardly wait for winter :).

 

George.

 

 

Edited July 16, 2023 by George Gearless
Update

[saac]

It's the best upgrade you can do. It's looking good so far, good luck with the rest of the build 

Jim 

[Graeme]

Everybody needs a roll off roof observatory! I look forward to watching you build yours.

Good luck

Regards

Graeme

 

[Marvin Jenkins]

You are a year ahead of me and I am watching closely. 
No need for ability excuses. It is a big build for you, as something similar in the future will be a big build for me.

Keep up the hard work and keep on posting as this kind of thing is invaluable to someone like me.

Marv

[George Gearless]

Just edited my OP for update.

[George Gearless]

Did a final update/edit on OP.