Observatory Project Starts

Tomorrow sees the beginning of what will hopefully be a fruitful and anjoyable experience for me. For a long time I've dreamt of having a well made observatory to make the most of the limited amount of clear skies we get.

My first though was to modify one of these metal sheds . I already have one of these and although the modification would be straighforward, I was concerned about a couple of things relating to size, strenght etc.

For a long time I have been looking at these . Having bought the plans, I decided to go down a slightly modified version of this design.

I am building the shed from scratch rather than modify an existing shed.

I've laid out the base and poured a concrete pillar, here are some photos.



Shows the site with base with final cementing (Over the whole lot) yet to be done.



Shows a close up of the pillar (with mutt for good measure). The pier is based on a massive piece of of wavin sewer pipe filled with concrete. The pillar is almost 4 feet above the ground but goes over 5 feet below ground. It is conpletely surrounded underground by a massive pour of concrete. (I forgot to take a photo of the hole before the pillar went in, it was massive!). I figured that the pillar could not be overspecced. A relation of mine who is a structual engineer looked at it and he said he'd be happy to use a pillar like that for building an office block!! So I guess I'll be okay!

The mechanics of the roof will be similar to the skyshed (linked above) however I will be using beefy roller breaings rather than garage door tracks for the rolling mechanism. The final observatory will be 10ft x 8ft

For the construction I will be using 4x3 timber for the main frame and roller tracks and then 4 x 2 for the sub frame and 6x1 for the cladding. I could have done this with slight less beefy timbers but I decided that the extra cost would be worth it in the long run.

I have calculated the whole thing should cost about €1000. I reckon this will be the best grand I ever spent.

Anyway as the project progresses over the next few weeks I'll post updates and piccies.

In the meantime, I'd be very interested in the views and advice of those of you who have already done something like this.

Very nice Dave, it will be handy to not setup every time. Will the ASGT mount fit to that pier :

Great stuff Dave! Make sure you keep taking those photos and keep us in touch. When it's all done, it's nice to have a set of images to look back on.
If you have any queries or need any help/a hand, feel free to give me a shout.

Looks good so far Dave!

Should make getting data a much more plesant job

Later,

Jed.

Very nice Dave, it will be handy to not setup every time. Will the ASGT mount fit to that pier :

Marty, I have a brother-in-law who is a structural engineer. He is making me plates to mate to the pier and the mount.

Michael: I'll be sure to draw on your experience as the project progresses, thanks.

Jed: Thats th real joy of the end product. I can use clear nights much more productively and better still a well tuned permanent setup will be a great asset.

Dave,
You wont know yourself when this is finished, the sheer convienence of having this will make using the telescope some much more enjoyable.