It should be called the doghouse but the name has already gone.
I have just ordered and paid for a Metal Lathe and Milling Machine and quite a bit of tooling for both when out of the blue an add appeared in here selling a Sirius Home dome for an almost give away price. The observatory was brand new and still on the packing crate wrapped in plastic. I enquired and won the sale. I then had to break the news to my other half with quite a speal on how good a deal it was and how if my aged mother next door died I would have to try and move my old ROR obs into my backyard. Something of a problem as my backyard is only the size of a postage stamp.
After a couple of very quiet and peacefull nights with only the dog talking to me I went down to Melbourne with a 10' X 6' trailler on the back of my truck to pick up the observatory, lathe and milling machine.
On the Sunday afternoon I went round to Darrens place (desler) and picked him up and off we went to pick up this little observatory. Packaged up on a made pallet it was 8' X 6' and weighed in at 250KG.
Quite a job getting it on but at least I had 1/16" clearance on each side of the trailler to play with and with Darren and the young bloke who owned it to help we got it on the trailler.
Monday morning I went to pick up the lathe , mill and other goodies and to my surprise they poked it in the back of my truck using a fork lift. at 180KG it was quite an effort to extracate from the truck but that is another story on it's own.
I got home with my load in tow and on board. Used a crow bar to bar it off the trailler and onto the front weed bed, I was going to say lawn but that would be a twist on words.
I finally decided where it was going to be positioned and set about building a deck to mount it on. The deck is strong enough to park a car on, being made of a supported frame of 8 X 2.4M X 50mm treated pine sleepers and a top deck of 150mm X 19mm treated pine. This was the cheapest material I could find in an endeavour to keep the peace.
Once the deck was built I proceeded to build the Observatory, paying attention to the assembly manual which all in all was pretty good. The only thing lacking was some detail on fitting the wheels to the dome.
I have attached photos of the process and please note the tiny backyard this dome had to fit into. No planning permit was required because it came in under 3M high and was not attached to the house. So that was my big win after the original purchase.
Hopefully dome rotation will follow soon.
Just a note on the pier: It is burried direct in the ground 1.2 M underground with 400mm of concrete on each side so it shouldn't move and is made from 150mm medium walled pipe and boy was it heavy to lift into the hole.
Here it is. I'm suitably chuffed. It's still quiet at home but she is mellowing to it slowly.
The first photo shows my current roll off roof observatory in my 93 year old mothers backyard next door. At least now I can insure everything on my contents insurance.
The old lass next door said it looks good. (My mother) and the old gent behind has severe Macular degeneration and said he wished he could see it. So no problems with the neighbours, in fact they are both quite supportive.
Lucky me hey.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dave47tuc
Looks super Doug I really like the pics of the Obs, with the hills in the background
There is nothing like having an observatory in your back yard
Can I ask, have you had any comments from the neighbours ?
Thanks for the comments everyone. The building stage was the easy part. Now for a proper floor, power, data and start to move it all accross from the old to the new. It will probably be a good time to take stock and get rid of some of the redundant junk I have aquired. In the mean time everything is set up and running in the old office. I may wait till the full moon to make the move.
Wow, looking good Doug. Way to go.
What a special place you're in too, nestled in the ranges.
Thanks Rob, yes it's a lovely place to live for sure but the hills have their disadvantages for astronomy. The thermals off them there hills can be a real problem with imaging. The other big problem is the lack of wind. I know it sounds funny but living in the valley we get very little wind down here but it can and often does blow a gale up high causing quite a bit of distortion. Still it is a nice place to live.
Doug
Excellent with the dome purchase. You have to get it motorised or you will spent ALL your time out there and not with the other half. Hope you have great times in it with that "Wide Vista" site.
Allan
Excellent purchase and one that will get used quite often I'd say. Nice work on the Lathe and Mill too, must upgrade my old 1930's metal lathe one day BTW whats the brand of the lathe and Mill? (unless I overlooked it somewhere)
Excellent purchase and one that will get used quite often I'd say. Nice work on the Lathe and Mill too, must upgrade my old 1930's metal lathe one day BTW whats the brand of the lathe and Mill? (unless I overlooked it somewhere)
Hi Andrew, I ended up buying a Sieg C6 lathe and the Sieg X2 mill. Just chinese made but seem reasonable quality, not that I have had much time to play with either of them yet. I have a couple of small projects to do but need to have my imaging setup running first. Once the Obs is finished and everything moved accross and the shed cleaned up again I will give it a good work out.
looks the part in that yard of yours, nice find indeed 
Congrats Doug. 
