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Been a bit busy

Keithp

By Keithp
in DIY Observatories

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Keithp

Keithp

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And finally, scopes are in and the mount is PA'ed. The wall to the right of the scopes is due south and following a severe haircut for the roses growing over the arbour to the side...and finally pulling the arbour down, I've modded the side so the top 1 third folds down. The track running on top of the beam has also been modded so it is removable.

Any questions fire away. Still waiting for the first clear night since I finished it:mad:

Typical!!

Regards

All

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Keithp

Keithp

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Clip pipe is used in air con systems. They do deliveries, 1 piece 1m X 450mm. Get's delivered by courier. I poured the concrete the day after doing the base. The rebar extends down from the top into the base and down into a deeper plug I dug out beneath the base. So the base is about 4ft square, 2ft deep with a further 1ft deeper directly beneath the pier.

As a test the other night while PAing the mount I put the camera on and did a 30 sec exposure and whacked the base with a hammer...absolutely nothing on the picture...it's rock solid

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Keithp

Keithp

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Keith

Very nice setup indeed, i was thing of the same type of shed myself.

I must say your scope and mount looks the business as well.

Simon

I'll try and post a more detailed write up tomorrow. Bit late now. There are a couple of 'gochas' you have to consider, mind it would also apply to a wooden shed as well. Thing is the shed only cost me £32 (rest was amazon vouchers from surveys) so I didn't mind hacking it about a bit. Wood cost about £100, tube £30 odd, plus the pier adapter. I reckon I've built the whole thing for less than £500.

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Keithp

Keithp

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I put together the base frame that the walls attach to first. This gave me a good idea of how much space it would take up when finished. It was a tight fit in the location I chose but the rose bush and arbour to the right of the site was going anyway.

I already knew that I would need to support the structure internally as the roof would be sliding off and so most of the rigidity would be lost. Using 2.4m fence posts I also knew I would have some adjustment when it came to setting the height in relation to the pier height. Putting the base frame on the ground gave me locations to dig the holes and set the posts in.

After that it was time to dig the hole for the pier. Balancing some offcuts across the hole allowed me to position the metal tube to give me some idea of where the re-bar had to go. Once that was sorted the re-bar was then wired together and braced. Put the shuttering up then concreted in. I put the tube in place and levelled it about five hours after pouring the concrete.

The following day the tube was filled and the pier adapter set in place, not forgetting to make sure plate adjuster peg was set to north. I also set in to the concrete beneath the plate a small glass bowl to allow the nut and bolt that screws into the mount holding to the plate room to extend below the level of the top of the pier.

Next job was to set the height of the walls. Loaded the pier up with the mount and tube rings, pegged the base frame to the posts and using a corner section of the wall adjusted the height of the base frame. This gave me the height that I knew I needed to clear when the roof moves off.

After putting in the floor joists using joist hangers and the cross beams I put the walls up following the instructions that came with the shed.

The wheels for the roof were ordered from Screwfix and the channel they run in was from Wickes. They do a nice range of coated pressed steel channel in 3M lengths, only just over a £5 per length.

It does have small round holes cut every metre or so in the channel but Wickes also do a nice range of washers that almost look like they were pressed from the channel:) so it was easy to buy oversize washers, araldite them to the correct size washers and then aradilte these to the channel and fill the holes.

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iamjulian

iamjulian

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Looks great. I've never thought about doing a proper observatory, but I'm starting to wonder whether I could make the pier bit without the shed (which I don't have room for) then just attached the mount and scope each night I wanted to use it. My wife won't thank you for putting that idea in my head mind :mad:

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Keithp

Keithp

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Looks great. I've never thought about doing a proper observatory, but I'm starting to wonder whether I could make the pier bit without the shed (which I don't have room for) then just attached the mount and scope each night I wanted to use it. My wife won't thank you for putting that idea in my head mind :D

Many thanks for the compliments all.

Julian

I think the only problem with what you suggest will be you have to attempt some kind of PA before you can start. But fine for visual work. I suppose it would mean you don't have to carry the tripod legs out every night and so long as rain isn't forecast you could leave the mount covered over. That was really bugging me when temps dropped to -8C during the winter. Now I can just pull the roof back over, lock it down...job done 5mins and go to bed.:mad:

The size of shed I got was 6ft X 6ft, in hindsight I might have gone bigger as that would allow more of the horizon to be seen from the mounted scopes. But I'm modding the south side to hinge down to overcome that, done the internal work already so the channel the roof runs down is removable.

I'll post up more on the mods later.

Regards

All

Keithp

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Keithp

Keithp

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Here's what's under the skin on the south side, the metal rail lifts out when the roof has rolled off. I've cut the south wall level with the beam dropped down about 1/3rd. Working on hinge config so it lowers quietly...keep the

neighbours happy:headbang:

First shot from inside so you can see how the turnbuckles operate second from outside with the skin off.

Third..well that's HMS Victory. New project.

Regards

All Keithp

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darkly

darkly

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That's outstanding, you must be (and should be) pretty chuffed with yourself.

Once I finally finish my DIY jobs list, I've been planning an obbsy and if it looks half as good as that I'll be happy.

:):icon_salut::D

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