Ten Chain Hill Observatory

[pmrid]

Well, it's been a while coming but it's here at last. Tonight we rolled the roof half-way off to test the design and measurements and all went well.
It's a converted horse paddock shelter that I have cut off at the waist in effect, lengthened and mounted on a timber floor. It had to house 2 big scopes - my 16 inch Dob and a Meade Maksutov plus the occasional blow-in and heaps of computers, beer fridges etc tc etc. Here are some pics. For those interested, it is roughly 5 x 4 metres in floor area. It'll be a while yet before the scopes move in but I can axtually see this happening whereas 6 months ago I would have laughed at the idea.


Peter

[Lester]

Hi Peter, looks very good. What is the cladding on the lower walls?

[astroron]

Great stuff Peter, it is coming along real well:)You won't miss not having an observatory:D:D

[pmrid]

Hello Lester. Thanks. The lower wall cladding came with the wall frames - pre-attached. It's industrial conveyor belt rubber (so horses can kick the proverbial out of it) but it has poor thermal qualities so it will probably get replaced in the fullness of time.
Peter

[pmrid]

G'day Ron, and thanks. The scopes get moved in today - all going according to plan. I can't wait. Next step is to motorise the slide on-off process. I have a 4WD winch spare so I think I'll use that running steel wire round a captstain arrangement on a few pullys so it can forward and reverse. But I'm knackered for the moment and since the levels are pretty good, I'll do it manually for now. But I'd be interested in any suggestions.
Peter

[rmcpb]

I think I have found someone else to put on my hate/jealous list.

Great job and horizons, you will really love that little setup :)

[pmrid]

Thanks Rob. The scopes moved in today. I'll add pics if I can figure out how.

Peter

[Paul Haese]

This is a very unusual looking observatory. Just a couple of observations/ questions.

How do you intend to hold down your roof against high speed winds? I thought about this issue a lot when I built and designed my roll off roof. I have often seen a lot of these roofs rolling in a u channel, but thought that this even with lock downs is fraught with all sorts of problems. The largest of which is the roof flying off in heavy winds. Have you a solution?

The other thing that has me intrigued is the way you laid the roof sheets. I note the corrugations do not run down hill but instead run horizontally. This is certainly not the norm. How will the roof drain? Do you have a plan for this?

I do like the way you have kept the walls low. I found that having high walls is ok but is problematic for seeing all the sky.

Keep the images coming.:)