Would you believe, that as I was screwing on the last weather strip, a thunderstorm hit us with a fury that I have not seen in a long time. My front yard became a raging river. All my Mulch, topsoil and woodchips are gone.
The dome is bone dry inside!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!
A beautifully timed and succesful foul weather test run before I put the equipment in!
God and his timing. See Shawn, he's still got time for the little blokes like us.
I have just had the busiest of weekends inside the dome. Constructed a reinforced pier of thick chipboard and re-enforcing steel frame inside, Welded it to the bolts hanging out of the cubic metre of subterranean cement I have there. Then I mixed concrete bucket by bucket to fill up a 7 foot tall by one foot square pillar from the top. That had set by this morning so then I painted the entire contents of the dome and its furnishings, dressed off the hole in the floor with a spaced skirt around the pier, mounted a top plate to the pier and installed the wedge. Shoveled the remaining half a cubic metre of gravel mix off the truck at my neighbors place. Cleaned up all tools, washed the truck and vaccumed the observatory.
Then settled down to eat a cold dinner and the last two inches of flat warm beer in the longneck sitting beside my PC from last night.
I'm Knackered. Going back to work tomorrow for a rest.
For those who don't know, Ron, (Tailwag) Is an absolute LEGEND and may God bless him and all the good he does!
He has TOTALLY blown me away with his services (VERY reasonable I might add) and given my website a complete makeover. He's been up all night, worked like a slave all day and going well into tonight too I believe!
So now, Barry's home-made observatory is NOT AT the old address I posted anymore. It is now on Ron's server. Have a quick look at it. It looks awesome! Thanks soooooo much Ron!
If you would like to contribute to Ron's cause and enlist his services, check him out on the http://www.aussiepeople.com.au front page.
Also, NOW The Observatory is done! Ron and I will update the site with the finished pics and explanations soon, but in the meantime, go to photo bucket http://s136.photobucket.com/albums/q184/bloodhound31/ to have a look. Here's a sample.
Thanks for your wonderful comments Barry, however I didn't really do that much, plus there is still some work to go. For those who don't know, Barry lost his images form his website and I responded to his call for help.
In the end I relocated his site on my servers, redesigned the site structurally from the PageMaker code it was written in, to the .Net framework using .ASPX, which is going to make the maintenance of his site a lot easier.
I still need to track down about 50 images and upload them, then the site will be replicated in it's new location. After that, Barry has some new ideas and I will chip in with a few little tricks and the new look site will be a pretty good resource for building a home observatory.
From an astronomy point of view, I was amazed at the photographs he took, showing absolutely every step of his journey from the turning the first clod of soil to the finished work.
Barry must be very talented in this area because it simply boggles my mind to even contemplate such an undertaking. It was a pleasure redoing his site for him, and when it's fully finished, I recommend it to all members who may not have seen it yet.
All the images are now in place and the site has come up great, of course it's the content that really makes it worthwhile and I am simply amazed that you have created such a magnificent observatory, from bits and pieces, in the front yard of your family home. I can't imagine what your neighbours think everytime they walk their dog past your place
All the images are now in place and the site has come up great, of course it's the content that really makes it worthwhile and I am simply amazed that you have created such a magnificent observatory, from bits and pieces, in the front yard of your family home. I can't imagine what your neighbours think everytime they walk their dog past your place
It works much more effectively than a speed hump... Can get a little sooky sometimes though...a car comes past...slows down...stops....backs up..slowly drives away again....
Then you realise what they are doing. LOL.
Well...I DID put it in the FRONT yard didn't I??
Ron's efforts are HUGE! I am glad we were thrown in the mix together, new recipe's can sometimes be surprising success stories..I know this one is.
I can't wait till the next time I am in the ACT, I will definitely be stopping by the ASIGN observatory to take a look, I reckon those plants you just put around the base of the observatory will have grown by then and it will make the outside sensational. Naturally all my focus will be on the inside, and I just can't wait to take a peep at some of my favourite DSO's.
Thank you for making the parallelogram for me Barry, I can't wait to use it, still poor weather here, probably be this way till the weekend
It sure looks great and balances the bins well, as well as pointing directly up at the zenith, I am certain my sore neck issue will become a thing of the past thanks to your DIY parallelogram.
By the way, if anyone wants me to build them one, let me know. I am sure I could do a deal. I am in need of a set of larg(ish) binoculars. I'm sure someone has a second set sitting around somewhere.....
