My Observatory

[Luke Bellani]

Hi All,
I built my observatory in early 2010 and so has now gone through a whole season and I'm happ to report that it has managed to cope with some really terrible weather over the past year and a half and is still going strong.

So I decided to post a link of how I built it in case some other DIY types wanted to see a some what different approach.

Here is a link to some photos.

https://picasaweb.google.com/111472284118262362927/BuildingTheObservatory#

Cheers,
Luke

[bartman]

Thats really cool hand(y) Luke ( in reference to Paul Newman :) ).
Great Idea and execution!
Thanks for sharing!
Bartman

[DJDD]

above everything! and you make it look so easy! :)

[Luke Bellani]

Thanks Bartman.
Good to see that what we have here is not "a failure to communicate" (also from the movie) :)
And with this weather I definitely do have cool hand :))

Cheers,
Luke

[Luke Bellani]

Hi DJDD,
It took me about a month to complete but it really wasn't all that hard once I had sorted it out in my head.

I was originally going to buy a SkyShed Pod but at the time it was just too expensive when added to the cost of the deck.

In the end, all up cost was under $3000 (most of it spent at Bunnings).

Cheers,
Luke

[DJDD]

we are reworking our backyard "soon" and since i don't have a lot of time to get out with the telescope (set up, etc.) i thought about an observatory. i have some high buildings/trees around so your solution might be a winner for me.

thanks for posting.
perhaps, if i get off my back side, and start doing some work out the back, then perhaps i can contact you for some advice? the way things are going that will be in 2015 but...:)

[ZeroID]

Some cool ideas there. I do like the laminated ply levelling plate. Gives me some options for my pier idea.
Well done, thanks for the information.

[spearo]

Very nice Luke
May I ask where you obtained the flute board from
and how much it was?

I had considered plastics for mine but in the end it was so dear...

thanks
frank

[vignesh1230]

A very creative idea! I have something like that frame in my backyard connected to the brick house and i think i could build one of those. What material is the floor board? The sandpaper looking thing and under that.

[ChrisM]

Luke, that's a nifty design, and one that obviously works if it's withstood 12 months of weather. Well done! How did you build the sliding shutter?

Chris

[trek1701]

After visiting this observatory, to get ideas because I have the same space restrictions at our home.
I can personally vouch that this observatory is a great design and well made.

Well done Luke ;)

[Davros]

Now that is an absolute cracker. Well done and excellent lateral thinking. :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thum bsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

[Davros]

Can i second the request for further info on the roof material and where it was obtained from. Also how did you end up sealing the joints between the door panels?

[netwolf]

Wow that is indeed a great design. Well done Luke.
Could you give some more details on the materials used. Like what is the wall made off? and how are the sections of the wall joined together?

Regards
Fahim

[Luke Bellani]

Hi Guys,
Sorry it took me so long to reply and thank you all for your positive remarks.

I'll try to answer you questions the best I can.

Just about all the building materials came from my local Bunnings hardware store.

The pier is made from 4m x 90mm laminated Merboo posts. Being laminated ensures that they remain perfectly straight.

I selected these because steel, althought probably better, would have been far too heave for me to handle alone. I bolted 4 postes together as shown.

I can say now that the pier has pereformed very well and although very stable, it is not as stiff as an equivalent 300mm diameter steel pier would be.

The deck is 4m x 3.5m and the osb is 3m in diameter.

The wall is made from the lowest cost doors Bunnings had.
They are inside doors and cost about $20 each at the time.
These had to be cut to the right height (yep, that's looks about right:lol:).
The cut end of the door had to be resealed using 30mm square pine.
The door was then painted with high quality (Dulux) oil based sealer, undercoated and painted to ensure protection against the weather.

I already knew this approach would work because I made my garage door (folding) in a similar way 12 years ago and they are as good today as when I bought them.

The doors are joined using full length brass piano hinge. Bunnings sells it by the roll. One roll was enough for the whole job.

This also allowed me to position the doors correctly without having to cut any angled edges. Worked a treat.

Then I made a top plate from 150mm x 20mm dressed hardwood, one piece for the top of each door.

These were cut to the correct length and angle and fastened to each door as well as the ends being glued together.

I embedded caster wheels in the top of each door. One per door. I would now recommend using two rollers per door and wheels around 50mm diameter.

A second top plate identical to the one on the doors forms the base of the dome.

This had 50mm aluminium angle around the outside edge as can be seen in the photos and this is used to secure the aluminium bar that forms the dome ribs.
The dome ribs are made from 4m lengths of 50mm x 3mm aluminium bar.

One end is clamped to the angle as seen in the pics and the other end is flexed and secured by directly oposite.
Easy to do providing you use the right number of doors.
When you decide on the diameter of the obs, make sure you have an equal number on each side of centre.

The two ribs that form the slit are installed first and then, all the other ribs just flex over these and screwed to the slit ribs.
This can be tricky so make sure you have plenty of clamps to hold everything securely during this step.

Once all the ribs are screwed in place, the parts that overlap the slit can be cut off with a hack saw and the dome will remain in place and correctly formed.

I then formed a circle around the inside edge of the lower top plate by securing 50mm x 3mm aluminium bar and flexing it all the way around.
It is secured where it contacts the middle of each segment of the plate and forms a track for the inner guide roller (skateboard wheels).

Buy cheap skateboards for the wheels. MUCH cheaper than buying wheels and bearings.

The dome is made from 3mm flute board sheeting (also from Bunnings).
These were not long enough to go the full length and so I had to join each one.
In hindsight, it may have been possible to get the correct length sheets from a plastics supplier, but it all worked out OK with the joins.

The sheets are marked and cut to size and then glued to the aluminium ribs with Contact Adhesive.

The glue is put on both surfaces and alowed to dry until just tacky and then the sheet is put in place and trimmed to the center of the rib where the adjacent sheet will be put.

This takes some time to do but it isn't very difficult.
The end of each sheet is glued and screwed to the angle.

Now a word of caution.

Make sure you make the slit wide enough to allow both main and guide scope to get a clear view.
If you only intend to use refractor telescopes then this should not be too much of a problem.

Now finally, the slit cover is made from 4 sections of overlapping flute board with the lower section at the back of the slit, glued in place and three sections able to slide over each other forming a weather seal.

These sections slide in a "track" made from strips of 4mm flute board glued together to form an E shaped end cross section.

When I want to view, I remove the front cover section and slide the top sections back past the apex of the dome, giving me a clear view overhead.

This has proven itself to work very well, however I have made provision for a flat strap that I use to secure the slit cover in high winds.

Well I hope that this brief sumery is somewhat helpful if any of you decide to use my approach :rofl:and would like to discuss any of this further, just drop me a line.

Cheers ;)
Luke

[Orionrules]

Well done...it look very nice.
How much is the total material cost.......it just show what you can achieved when you put your heart and mind to it...congratulation!
I am thinking of building one too and have been looking at what others has designed and built on the WW web.
I came across our fellow AS in Malaysia who has also built one that is out of this world...for an AS that is. See this URL...
http://www.skyteoh.com/aboutus/index.html
Will pay him a visit next year to have a look and chat with the fellow AS, as I am thinking of having a holiday up there.
Again, well done and keep it up!

[bloodhound31]

Thanks for sharing your progress with us Luke! It certainly makes it handy for anyone thinking of building their own observatory, keeping in mind their very different requirements, situations, budgets and designs. One can glean a myriad of tips, tricks, ideas and concepts from all these resources.

Nice work mate.

Baz.

[Luke Bellani]

Hi James,
Wow:eyepop:Now that's an interesting design. I'd love to see a picture of the inside.

As for my effort.
I can't remember the exact cost of all the materials, but it would have been around $1500 including the deck (the most expensive bit).
I was originally going to buy a SkyShed Pod, but I just couldn't bring myself to pay around AU$5000 for a product that sells for under US$2000.

Cheers,
Luke

[netwolf]

Luke, now when you says doors? do you mean standard doors. Because what I see in the picture does not look anything like a door. Doors are usually longer and wider. What am I missing here? coud you post a link to a picture of the door before its cut up?

BTW I agree with you on the Skypod, the problem seems to be in the cost of bringing these over seems to be very high. But what would appear affordable to an amateur in the US seems well above it here.

But what you have come up with is quiet an awesome achivement. Low cost and sturdy, using off the shelf parts. If we could only convince someone to make a Kit for this.

Regards
Fahim

[mswhin63]

Hi Fahim,

I have used Bunnings doors for many projects that are not for doors, I can vouch for them as good for a lot of things. They do look like doors to me.

[netwolf]

I think I found it , is this the one Luke?
http://www.bunnings.com.au/products_product_flush-internal-door_355.aspx?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=doors&utm_campaign=A|HIGH|Builders|Doors

Now that I see it as a picture I can see the resemblance. The just look so much wider in real life. BTW what height did you cut these to?

Regards
Fahim

[Poita]

Truly amazing, I never thought to use doors, and flute board for the roof is genius, I should just knock-off all the signs during the next election and use those.

I wish I still had my own property, I think the landlord might notice this if I put it in the backyard.

[mswhin63]

I hope to build a landlord friendly observatory over the next few months. Hopefully movable. :shrug:

[Luke Bellani]

Hi All,
Thank you for your kind comments.

Fahim, yes they are the doors I used and I cut about 300mm off the length.

The offcuts made great shelves inside the obs, so very little was wasted.

I made a narrow desk with three joined together that are perfect for my keyboards.

I used other offcuts for shelves up high for my bits and pieces. Since they are door offcuts, they are exactly the right width and small right angle brackets are all that's needed to hang them.

The doors have 30mm solid timber edges so the shelf bracket screws have something to bite into.

As long as the doors are properly sealed and painted, there is no reason for them not to last for many years.

It's funny that you should mention making a kit available. I was thinking along those lines just today.

Do you think there would be any interest?

I would give it some serious thought if there were a few people seriously interested.

Cheers,
Luke

[Luke Bellani]

Peter,
Who cares if the landlord notices. It doesn't have be a permenant fixture.

[netwolf]

Luke, if you could make it such that it could be easily assembeled and perhaps even disassembeld then a kit would be great. I think there is a market for a low cost observatory. But as with anything astronomy in australia it is a small market.

[Poita]

The landlord lives next door :(

I hate renting...

[Poita]

If you made a kit that would survive and be non-permanent, I'd be interested for sure.

[mswhin63]

Landlord around the corner

I hate renting too..... :(

[trek1701]

I'm interested.;)

[vignesh1230]

Could we get some close up images on how the slit goes together? I am going to soon make something identical to yours, and was just wondering how it weather seals and opens. Thanks :)

[prenzi]

Why not show the landlord the beauty of the heavens above - he / she might fall in love with it, you never know...

The "Bunnings observatory" should be easy to disassemble and removable without a trace, so where is the problem for a landlord ? I wouldn't do a concrete pier without speaking to them first, though.

We're renting as well, big house with 13 acres of land, cats & dogs & horses & fish tanks, and do all sorts of funny things - and our landlords love it each time they come; over time we're actually developing a really nice relationship. What we do is we ask, and we show what and why we want to do certain things - so far it has always worked out fine.

BTW, I'm German, so where I come from renting is the norm, and buying is being done once in your life only - it's exactly the other way round as down under. And tenants are no outcasts... :).

Cheers, Florian