A little history first: I've got to be one of the luckiest guys around. Last year for my birthday my wife decided she would take on the theme of astronomy. So, she did her research and started buying gear, 12" Dob, ETX125, books, and the latest, soon to be released, kit observatory from Astrodomes. Needless to say come the day I was stunned with the gifts. It's a bit of a step up from a pair of binoculars.
As for the observatory I was given a drawing and told it was under development and should be delivered soon. Development delays meant it actually took over 12 months to arrive, but the good news most has now been delivered and construction has commenced.
The pictures show I was initially going to put it a raised platform (first shot with holes) but ended up scrapping the idea. So it is now being constructed on a concrete slab. The kit is fairly easy to construct but it takes some time to insert all the bolts in each panel (approx 30).
Wow – that story and the photos are fabulous. Tell me, does your wife have an unmarried sister with the same supportive outlook towards astronomy! LOL!
Great work so far Malcolm - I haven't seen one of this design before so will be interested in your assessment once it's up and going. What type of turntable does it have?
Chris
Malcom, a fine Observatory in the making and I'm sure you are stoked.
Although I did not really want to mention this, I hope you see it as a constructive observation.
Back filling to put down a concrete slab is probably not a good Idea, as it will settle and move over time.
It dose not matter how hard you may have packed it, there will be some movement, and wet weather will undermine the site, you probably would have been better to dig out the high side of your building site.
Please don't think that I running down your building methods, but I have seen this happen before on many occasions, with other peoples projects.
I sorry, but I just felt that I should bring this to your attention, having said that, I certainly hope this dose not occur, but I do have my reservations.
wow I found out the price - -mate you have a beautiful wife who is supportive and kind and generous - - that observatory is like gold!!!!!!!!!! (4 figures very close to 5)
Cloudy Nights also had an amazing thread on a guy who built a very tall concrete pier with infinitely bigger problems than this, but I cant find that link right now.
Cloudy Nights also had an amazing thread on a guy who built a very tall concrete pier with infinitely bigger problems than this, but I cant find that link right now.
Rally
That poor bloke on cloudy nights, if i were him id be making the concretor pay for it. Stability is an issue always, over engineer the dead weight under the pier. 1cu meter is about 1.25tonnes it will cost more but if done properly you will be thankful especially if isolated properly. I would imagine you could dig a large hole then hammer into the bottom of that hole some rebar or star pickets then concrete around that. Starpickets are around $8 each @ 2.1m long. 4 of them bashed into the bottom of the hole about 1.5m would give you about 2.5m of connection to the ground instead of a 1tonn block floating in the ground.
They do it with bridges etc, drive additional pylons into the ground then concrete over the top
