New observatory construction

[gregbradley]

My new observatory is now well advanced.

It is 5 x 3 metres with a side room of 1.5 x 2 metres for the computers.
It also means I can insect screen this control room for summer.

Treated pine frame with 3mm thick gal L brackets from Bunnings and 45mm roofing screws to lock everything together.

100mm C purlin for the roll off roof track.

I used Aircell Insulbreak for insulation, nice and clean, easy to use and cut and no toxic fibres.

I am using curved .6mm curving grade colorbond corrugated roof sheets.

I will fix these to something like 100 x 40mm 3mm thick steel square section. I will bolt wheels to this steel first and they sit inside the C purlin which is standing upright and the C facing in towards the observatory.

I intend installing a solar powered air vent.

I plan on insulating under the roof sheets with the insulbreak and using this double sided tape I found at the hardware store to hold it up.

2 slabs. One is 2m x 2m as a pad and is 140mm thick with reo for a portable tripod. The other is 1 x 1 metre and 1 metre deep with lots
of reo in it. That is for a permanent pier and Paramount ME mount.

About a weeks worth of work or less to finish it off.

Floor is road base 100mm and then sand and then pavers. There isn't much area to do.

A single solid door for entry.

I'll post some photos.

Greg.

[renormalised (Carl)]

Piccies would be nice...we'll be able to get a feel for the obs then

[Bolts_Tweed (Mark)]

Gday greg

Some great ideas. The best thing you will ever do is the small insulated control room. I am sitting in mine now at Leyburn (It is Qld but trust me it gets damn cold here minus 6 or so is not uncommon) and I usually only wear a T shirt. Only on really cold nights I put a jumper on or turn on hte gas heater

Imaging should be enjoyable and its easy to have fun without your teeth chattering.

My only drama is my roof - I have to set up some form of motorisation for it - its damn heavy.

Good luck mate

Mark Bolton

[GrampianStars (Rob)]

Originally Posted by Bolts_Tweed

Gday greg

Some great ideas..............
My only drama is my roof - I have to set up some form of motorisation for it - its damn heavy.......
Mark Bolton

I use a 240V winch like this works great (about $100)
Mounted in centre high up on southern wall a coupla' turnbuckles and eyebolts
that's it!

[Bolts_Tweed (Mark)]

Yeah - I bought a couple of things like this - real cheap mine were and it is reflected in their performance- yours looks like a real bit of kit.

Mine kept winding over themselves somehow so that when I want to hook on at the ned of the night say, I cant pull the cable out to attach to the roof. I actuallyu tore one out of its mounting in frustration at 3 oclock in the morning. . I am thinking about setting the cables at at fixed length attached to each end of the roof (one on each side) to pull in both directions - and running 3 loops around each drum so that it is just a matter of reversing the drum direction and there is no pulling out cable at the end of the night - does this make sense?

I would really like to attch the drums to be on some sort of axle so that I only have one motor driving it - would make it easy. I suppose a length of water pipe would do the job run through some sort of pillow blocks and a couple of belt pulleys from the drive motor to the axle.

Just another gunna job but I'll have to do it eventually - as I get older climbing a small step ladder to get the roof moving then walking along some bench tops as I open it is going to become harder and harder.

Mark Bolton

[bert (Brett)]

Mark,

If your roof is fairly easy to move, ie it moves easily by hand, use a sectional door operator. Preferrably a dc unit, as it gives you better control and some handy features and is quiter. I have autmated 6 different observatory rooves this way and it is pretty effective and reliable and is far cheaper that buying a winch and the pulley systems.

The next step up from that is a sliding gate operator I have done 3 rooves this way. These require the roof to be held in place by its runner/track. (the old wheel in a c-section trick flops around too much) These are extremely heavy duty and have more intelligent logic control systems and is easily converted to ascom control if automation is your goal.

Brett

[gregbradley]

Some good tips there. Thanks for that.

I am hoping the roof will roll off easily. This is the 3rd observatory I have built. The one at my dark site is built like a tank which is handy as it can get extremely windy there almost cyclonic at times. It is a bit heavy but I can manhandle it open.

This one should be lighter and theoretically smooth. I'll try your suggestion of a garage opener. That makes sense.

I am at the cladding stage now and roofing early next week.

Greg.

[gregbradley]

I now have a few pictures.

One of the observatory without the roof yet and not 100% finished off:

http://www.pbase.com/gregbradley/image/124516712

One of the pier which is 1 metre deep and full of reo and the other pad 2m x 2ms; - sorry about the angle.

http://www.pbase.com/gregbradley/image/124516778

I have curved roofing sheets ready to be installed as a roll off roof once I finish installing the tracks and a bit more cladding and flashings.
It is probably only a couple of days work to wrap it up and be operational.

I intend putting pavers on the floor, a solar operated airvent, a screen door enclosure for the warm room so no mozzies and power and lights.
Perhaps even an electric rolloff roof solution. I chose curved roofing sheets to allow clearance of the scope hopefully in any position (yet to be proven) which makes it quite a bit safer having had one scope clip a roof before.

Greg.

[bloodhound31]

Got some more pics yet Greg? How's it all going?

Baz.

[gregbradley]

Hi Baz,

Here is a photo I took this morning.

It is nearing completion. The structure and frame, cladding, roofing are all finished. Next is paying pavers on the floor inside and installing power.

Then a clean up and install the astronomy gear. The pier weighs about 100kgs and that will be installed over the weekend.

The shed at the rear is a storage shed, the observatory is the building in front with a little sideroom for computers etc.

http://www.pbase.com/image/125486267

Greg.

[Paul Haese]

Greg, what happened to the curved roof sheets? I was keen to see what that would look like.

[TrevorW]

Greg who makes the TEC 110 Eclipse, looks nice scope