Dylan's Pod Observatory Project

[dylan_odonnell]

No going back now! Trees felled, concrete poured. I was planning on a ROR but space limitations made the Sky Shed Pod the most sensible choice (Coming soon).

Thanks especially to Astronobob for his help with the pour and levelling. My soft computer fingers would not have been able to deal with the concrete by myself. The 3.5 x 3.7m footprint is a decent slab :)

Timelapse video of the pour here : https://www.instagram.com/p/BCMIWtiijVl/

d

[speach]

very interested in the progress as I'm thinking of a pod.
Simon

[Atmos]

Exciting times :)

[astronobob]

That was a good challenge Dylan, the area was 5mm deeper thus being a few borrows short, I could not screed from the formwork, so it took a couple of goes to find the right height so all was flat & level - can notice the crete not quite filling upto the timber at the edges...
Good it worked out in the end tho :thumbsup:
It was good helping with the BBO :thumbsup:

[dylan_odonnell]

Well it's done! The second hand pod I bought had a few worn areas but nothing a little DIY couldn't fix. The first rain was torrential and there were some drips inside on all 4 corners where the dome quarters meet, so I've replaced the internal foam seals, external rubber and added some silicon to the joins.

The pod is large enough to hold my gear fully extended, even with the guide scope on top but high targets are definitely problematic with the semi-circle of the dome being straight up. It hasn't blocked the view yet, but my guidescope has been blocked, so I may switch to off-axis guiding... though this isn't possible for my hyperstar work.

Apart from that, it's an absolute pleasure. I come and go whenever the weather suits and can now spend more time on planning and hypertuning the alignment instead of spending hours setting up and pulling down everything.

Special thanks to Astronobob for helping me lift the dome and lending a hand with his hammer drill and concrete screws, and my wife for supporting all the crazy. :)

Technically the easternmost observatory in Australia!

d

[Manav]

Thats awesome! My skyshed dome is sitting in pieces in the garage and needs some attention...This weekend I'm gonna wrap it up

[astronobob]

Thats awesome Dylan :thumbsup:
Grouse that laser killing the street light - Classic !
Now being the most eastern obs in Aus - you should have your photos posted before every one else huh - is that right :rofl:
Hey, good stuff champ and great to hear your comfortable with it during bad weather now :cool2:

[CognitiveBias]

Wow fantastic job!

[glend]

Nice job but those trees have to go.;)