That is a great idea...not only for appearance but for easy of construction and later management. The thing that you are probably thinking about is water proofing the join...I would suggest felt or similar to prevent driving rain entering..let over kill guide you.
Also you could enclose the area between the supports with shade cloth or similar and use the enclosed ( and covered) area as a green house.
That is a great idea...not only for appearance but for easy of construction and later management. The thing that you are probably thinking about is water proofing the join...I would suggest felt or similar to prevent driving rain entering..let over kill guide you.
Also you could enclose the area between the supports with shade cloth or similar and use the enclosed ( and covered) area as a green house.
Good luck.
alex
Thanks Alex.
Where the roof halves join i’ll do a colorbond flashing where one side of rhe roof goes under it by 200mm.
Did that in the last observatory and it worked well.
Greg,
Enjoy building the new Obs
I’ll have to drop by some time in the future to meet up and check out your new site.
My retirement getaway with Dome is only 30mins further south
All sounds very exciting..canni wait for some photos
Thanks Mike.
I also plan an extension to my observatory at Bigga.
Mike
Quote:
Originally Posted by Startrek
Greg,
Enjoy building the new Obs
I’ll have to drop by some time in the future to meet up and check out your new site.
My retirement getaway with Dome is only 30mins further south
Looking forward to seeing your progress
Cheers
Martin
I agree, it’s an enjoyable process building an observatory.
Yes we should meet up some time. I am familiar with
Your area.
I changed the design back to an up and over roof.
Steel framing mostly done today.
Start cladding and roof structure tomorrow.
Well it's been a few hard days and the framing is complete, the Hardi Primelok cladding is complete and the roll off roof structure is complete.
I ended up getting a bifold window worth $3000 for $1000 and installed it and it makes it look very good as it's right at the back of my new house.
Now just the roofing sheets and a door and some flashings/cappings to finish it off.
The frame is all steel so the whole building is fire proof.
I will also need electricity connected to it.
Pier is ready to be fixed (it's heavy).
The roll off roof is a dream and the framing is lightweight aluminium 50mm square section. Sliding gate rails and matching wheels roll easily. The roof is split into 2 halves and can roll off either way or together to reveal the whole available sky (limited).
Well it's been a few hard days and the framing is complete, the Hardi Primelok cladding is complete and the roll off roof structure is complete.
I ended up getting a bifold window worth $3000 for $1000 and installed it and it makes it look very good as it's right at the back of my new house.
Now just the roofing sheets and a door and some flashings/cappings to finish it off.
The frame is all steel so the whole building is fire proof.
I will also need electricity connected to it.
Pier is ready to be fixed (it's heavy).
The roll off roof is a dream and the framing is lightweight aluminium 50mm square section. Sliding gate rails and matching wheels roll easily. The roof is split into 2 halves and can roll off either way or together to reveal the whole available sky (limited).
100mm 1.6mm galvanised C purlin. Bought from Edon steel but a very common product from roofing companies.
L brackets from Bunnings and 25mm Tek screws into metal. Predrill holes with a rivet drill bit (#30 or 3mm). Then screw off.
L brackets are anchor bolted to the 100mm thick slab with 50mm x 10mm anchor bolts.
The bottom of the observatory walls has a colorbond flashing, 100mm up the frame and 50mm across the slab at 95 degrees to shed water and sealed to the slab with a thick bead of Sikaflex Pro set back from the edge about 20mm so it doesn't squish out.
The window I picked up 2nd hand off Facebook Market from a local who ordered the wrong size. It cost them $3,000 and I got it for $1,000. It's a bifold window 2 metres by about 700 and extremely well made. Same brand and colour as ther sliding stacker doors on my house.
Added benefit it opens up a more panoramic view behind the house when viewing inside the observatory. I plan on putting a blind on it to shield from light but it also makes the building prettier and perhaps more future saleable as a craft room, work at home space etc, etc.
Cladding is James Hardi Primelok preprimed fibre cement cladding. I got it halfo price as a clearance item from Bunnings. $1300 for 52 x 4.2metre x 145mm cover.
It is screwed to the purlins with 30mm M8 metal screws. We predrilled the holes so the screwing off was easy and no damage to the cladding.
I'll send some more photos of the roll off roof which is now framed and some details on that.
Tomorrow I plan to install chicken wire across the roof frame, insulation blanket and colorbond corrugated (custom orb). I'll then order some cappings. and a flashing to join the 2 halves of the roof. I found the roll off roof also works very well if the whole roof is rolled off. It exposes almost all the sky my limited view at this site has. It's still a large swath of the sky.
The sliding gate track and the matching sliding gate wheels from Bunnings worked really well. My son and I worked together on this. He has high standards and I am very happy with it. The roof rolls off effortlessly. One important tip there was to fit the wheels on both sides then lay the track loose and let the wheels push the track into the ideal spot then screw it off rather than trying to measure where it should be and screw it off and probably getting some misalignment error.
The roof rolls off easily. The colorbond roof should only weigh about 15-25kgs each side.
The trusses were made out of 50 x 50mm 3mm walled aluminium square section. Strong and light and easy to handle. My son was able to hang his bodyweight off the trussed with no problem so they are very strong.
This is 6 days work. Probably another 4 days to finish it off, painting, clad the gables of the roll off roof, another board of cladding to hide the wheels etc.
I have the pier in the room so just need to orient it to true south and anchor bolt it down. Then the mount - a PME.
Now we’re talking. Taking shape very nicely. I love how close it is the golf course. Should be able to pick up a few free golf ball me thinks
Hehe, yes a few. Luckily the golf course has moved the tee off point so I don't get many golf balls in the backyard at all now which was a worry for the scopes.
But I don't see anyone playing golf until about 9am or so and I would have closed the roof by then.
Now we’re talking. Taking shape very nicely. I love how close it is the golf course. Should be able to pick up a few free golf ball me thinks
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dave882
Looking fantastic!
Quote:
Originally Posted by strongmanmike
Great progress Greg
How much do the surrounding trees restrict sky access?
Mike
They restrict a fair bit, can't really pick up an object until its close to the zenith but can see it all the way down.
Also the block is NNW/SSE oriented so I get a good view of the south and at the moment about 20 degrees past the galactic centre. So it's not unrestricted like Bigga.
Today I put on the roof with insulation under it and one more board of cladding plus order the cappings.
Not quite sure how to orient the pier. I may set up a temporary scope and mount and do a rough polar alignment so I bolt the pier in the correct orientation.
They restrict a fair bit, can't really pick up an object until its close to the zenith but can see it all the way down.
Also the block is NNW/SSE oriented so I get a good view of the south and at the moment about 20 degrees past the galactic centre. So it's not unrestricted like Bigga.
Today I put on the roof with insulation under it and one more board of cladding plus order the cappings.
Not quite sure how to orient the pier. I may set up a temporary scope and mount and do a rough polar alignment so I bolt the pier in the correct orientation.
Greg.
Nothing a bit of target planning can't deal with
So you will still have Bigga, awesome, best of both Worlds ...you a surfy?
Are you planning on local control or from in the house?
Neville
LSO
I have an Asi air
Quote:
Originally Posted by strongmanmike
Nothing a bit of target planning can't deal with
So you will still have Bigga, awesome, best of both Worlds ...you a surfy?
Mike
Hehe, no not a surfie but like boating and plan on kayaking around the many waterways of the south coast. Endlessly beautiful spots down here.
Yes, I figure planning should take care of that plus I want to start with the CDK17 and its reducer giving F4.8 or so.
At Bigga planning on extending the observatory or perhaps even a 2nd one so I can run a refractor setup using an iOptron CEM70 and the AP1`30 or CFF105 as well as the Honders in the main observatory. As you know 12inches of aperture at F3.8 is a wondeful thing!
Been getting a lot of clear nights down here in the last few months.
Bodes well.
...one needs to live vicariously through others, to keep the dream alive 
