Hi Everyone,
After much deliberation, mostly in my head and after getting royally sick and tired of setting up and tearing down my gear every time, I managed to secure a "lease" on my own land, courtesy of the better half, to extend the existing shower deck near the pool filter and bodgy up an observatory so I can gather all the more Sydney skyglow whenever I want.
Prior to my gallbladder removal operation (good bloody riddance) in August, I started in late July on what looks at first glance to be a vege patch, forming the base of the deck, which got put on hold for a few months while recovering from the surgery. I only completed half of the decking boards before finishing them in late September....
Next item on the agenda was to finish digging the pier footings and then fit and pour the concrete into the base and the pier "pipe", scrounged from the Windsor junkyard, I based the pier design on an article I read in Sky at Night magazine for an HEQ5 in a UK backyard, with re-bar down the pipe, a nice solid base and concrete down the tube.
The pier top plate was also from the junkyard, some sort of salvaged pully wheel or something, which seemed to be carbon steel and just the right size to fit into the PVC pipe yet form a stable platform for the HEQ5 Pro mount.
Some threaded rod, M10 nuts, an M6 AZ bolt and 200kgs of concrete later, I have now got an almost working pier to bolt the mount to, (the conduits are fed to the bottom of the pier, ready for the cables) and now "all" I have to do is build an observatory over the top of it all.
Incidentally, the total cost of the pier as it stands (not including the deck) is only $100 so far, including $60 for the concrete...not bad as it is rock solid and any taps on it die down in just over a second. Jumping on the deck has no effect, even with my 120kg, 6 foot 9 frame doing the jumping
So, to start with, here are the progress pics to date. Starting with the vege patch and moving up to today, after two days work finalising the construction of the pier works. I am planning to paint the pier the slate grey that matches the pool fence and almost everything else in the back yard, simply as it is readily available and if I get stuck, or move, could even look like a bird feeder support if the building goes with me or never gets built.
Design for the obs is still in my head, I am tossing around a few different split roof ideas trying to minimise the footprint of the open roof as this is an aesthetic project which has to align with SWMBO's grand plan. So stay tuned on the roof design.
The building will be approx 2m wide and 4 metres long (ish - I cant remember) and will have a warm room at the back with the front section open to the sky. I am planning on either pine or steel framing depending on the cost and weatherboards (think distressed beachfront change room) for the cladding if I can find it, with a steel colourbond roof and perhaps some sort of fancy door as it will face the pool.
The dead grass in the pics is also that way as the deck will be extended depending on budget and priorities, to fill in the whole area later on.
Early days yet, but I thought I would start a thread so I can keep my motivation levels up and maybe garner some excellent ideas from anyone who may want to chip in.
Whew, enough for now, I will try and keep this updated with any new works as they are completed.
Thanks for stopping by
Cheers
Chris