Little Owl Micro Observatory (on a 2nd floor balcony)

[astrovirus]

Hi there,

I'm newly registrated here although I have been a frequent reader of the interesting content on IIS. I would like to show you my build of my 2nd floor balcony observatory, as my backyard is just too small to house a full scale ROR observatory. In addition, the balcony has much beter views of the Southern skies which are partly blocked from yard by three trees. The most challenging part of this build was to mount the pier, as I don't want it fixed to the balcony floor to prevent possible leaking of the roofing in time. Therefore I opted to fix the pier to the side wall of the balcony.

I made some 3D drawings of the situation in Google Sketchup (in which the clever eye will spot I have the mount RA axis pointing in the wrong direction, :question:) and started with cleaning the balcony floor (which hadn't been done for about 8 years or so). I also did a test imaging run to see if everything would fit as planned and it did. To support the gear and observatory I had a co-worker of the dad of a friend of mine weld an aluminium frame. The pier I got second hand and was adapted for side mounting by a good astro buddy of mine, thanks again Gerard. To save me some money I made an EQ6 pier adapter from an old used brake disk.

[astrovirus]

Me and my dad also got the wood needed for construction of the observatory and made a start by installing the pier and the lower support frame of the observatory. Also shown is a panoramic view of my skies from East-South-West.

[Tinderboxsky]

Very clever design. I like it, and the name too. I am looking forward to seeing the finished observatory.

Cheers

Steve.

[astrovirus]

Thanks Steve.

The refers to our streetname which in from Dutch translates to Little Owl, which happens to be the smallest owl, and therefore also refers to the size of the observatory.

I see you're living in Tasmania, I have some family overthere, so I hope to visit your lovely island sometime in the future.

[Tinderboxsky]

Hi Tim,

A visit here to see family is an excellent reason for some observing "down under". Let me know and I can show you the gems of our far southern skies.

Cheers

Steve.

[astrovirus]

There has been some good progress this week, however photos will have to follow later on, when weather permits. The top frame has been constructed and moved from the backyard to the second floor, which proved quite the problem as it was too wide for our staircases. So we pulled it up by rope from the balcony. Yesterday, the frame was placed and the hinges installed, so the top can now flip open. I also installed the roof and I'm now ready to start applying the shiplap to the rest of the structure, which is something I can hopefully do in some dry hours in the evenings this week. The roof also need some finishings to be taken care off, and the back wall panel has to be constructed, but I will probably do that last. Electricity will then have to be installed, and after painting some of the remaining parts of the pier and pier adapter, my equipment can be placed. All looking very good at the moment.

[astrovirus]

So just managed to take some shots before Bertha's remains arrive with lots of rainfall forecasted.

[Octane]

That is very well done! Making the best use out of the small space. Very cool. :)

H

[koputai]

Very cool Tim, seeing the good side of things and making the most from
the situation you're in, rather than just giving up!

I love the idea of using a brake disc as your top plate.

Cheers,
Jason.

[astrovirus]

So, more and more it is starting to look like an observatory (albeit a very small one).

Work done this week;
Made some small brackets to guide the top frame.
Shiplap nearly finished en attached a handle for opening, also constructed a foldable stand for when the observatory is opened.
Finished the roof.

[Capricorn1(Tom)]

Very nice:thumbsup:

[astrovirus]

Made some good progress again today, out on the balcony in the nice sunny weather. Installed the clips that will lock down the top frame and also the back frame when the observatory is closed. Also constructed the backframe and installed the rain gutter and drainpipe for the observatory and also a reroute from our drainpipe for the appartment roof that would empty on the balcony, which now follows a gutter to the drainpipe for the balcony itself. So most of the roof water will not have to pass beneath the obeservatory now. Still I will put up a damp barrier under the floor which I have to install over the coming days, to prevent moisture from entering the structure from below.

[DJDD]

i like the supports you have bolted to the wall. clever design.

[astrovirus]

Another small update with some pics.

Made some finishes to the Alu-frame and als the sides of the shiplap.

Placed extra handle for opening/closing observatory and also put some caps in the foldable stand.

Put up a plank to prevent rain from entering on sloped sides and also serves as a alignment help when closing the observatory.

Bracing pins for the closings.

Power lines, sockets and data pipe.

[astrovirus]

So, the light at the end of the tunnel is coming into sight. This week, I pulled 3 active USB cables through the data pipe, which prove more of a problem then I had anticipated beforehand, but in the end with a little help we managed. Then I also wanted to get the EQdit cable in, which also succeded with some effort. I also place the NEQ6 mount on the pier and leveled it, and then came the moment of thruth, to see if the observatory would properly close with the OTA fitted. And it did, so I did my homework, measurements, and building properly to my specs. First Light is approaching now, although I still have to do a lot of tiny things around and in the observatroy. Also the control PC will have to be installed at the inside of the balcony/window wall, so I'll have to install a mounting for that, as well as configuring the PC, as I have decided to swap my old PC for another oldie, that has a much smaller footprint. However this means installing XP pro again with its 111 updates and after that getting all my astronomy software up and running again, with some nice new additons to start experimenting with (AT plate solving and maybe after that FocusMax autofocusing).

[omegacrux]

Congratulations on a practical and innovative build
Saves a lot on setup time I bet !

David

[astrovirus]

Yesterday I got around to instal the rest of the equipment and started to prepare the control PC with the much needed software. All connections between software and equipment are up and running, so I'm nearing "first light". However, before that, polar aligning will prove somewhat of a challenge as I have almost no view of the Northern sky and Alignmaster strongly favors starpairs with a component in the Northern sky. So I'll probably will also try the polar alignment help in AstroTortilla, or EQalign to perform polar alignment. Images of the completed setup will follow in the coming days, as there is still some cable mess to sort out on the observatory floor.

[N1]

Great to see you nearing completion. Perfect timing with northern observing season getting underway. :thumbsup:

[astrovirus]

So, finally managed to take some images to show the latest progress.

1. Control PC ready for action on polar algnment tonight. On the right is a simple weather station to monitor temperature and humidity in the observatory when not in use.

2. Another view of the control unit with the imaging equipment ready for action in the background. The PC is attached to the monitor stand so it has a nice small footprint.

3. Camera mounted, with all needed cables/hub.

4. Finder guider and main data cable.
5. Outdoor sensor of the weatherstation mounted on the lower casing of the observatory. In the background, some of the polystyrene isolation I'm in the process of installing is visable.

[Manav]

10 points for using google sketch! :D

[astrovirus]

So, finally a clear night without any other obligations, so spent some time on polar aligning the NEQ6 using AstroTortilla Polar Alignment tool. Despite having read some bad experiences with this tool, I have to say it worked out rather well to get my mount reasonably polar aligned without having any views of polaris from my balcony. Also using Alignmaster proves difficult as it has a preference for N-S star pairs and I have hardly any view towards the Northern skies. With a couple of itterations AT now reports my altitude error as 48' (coming from 5°) and my azimuth error was around 2-3' so I left that alone. Plate solved corrected goto precision is now spot on and I already tested shooting 5 minute guided subs with no problems. Looks like LOMO is now truly getting ready for a serious first light.