South Side Observatory

[SkyHiker]

Nice idea about the bubble gum -- very practical.

It did not stop some of the water from seeping through. It was dry yesterday so I put some caulking on those cracks. Turns out the short wall had a crack too, they are both covered.

I suspect that the yoga mat foam is open cell, which means that it will let water through even after all the cracks are caulked. Not a lot like when it goes straight through a crack, bug enough for persistent rain. So I may have to caulk all over the foam surface, or paint a water resistant coating on it. I have a gallon of such a Drylok coating for an unrelated wall project for which I ended up not using it, I can use it here.

Let me first wait for the rain to return to see how bad it is. One place that I don't intend to fix is the door that has 5 mm cracks that will let rain through when it flies horizontally. I think that's rare enough to not worry about it.

[helicon]

Sounds like rain and bad weather can be a big problem. I hope the waterproof paint works.

[SkyHiker]

Sounds like rain and bad weather can be a big problem. I hope the waterproof paint works.

It is only a problem if the pad is larger than the building and if it is concave so it collects water instead of letting it run off. Even then it's just a matter of closing the gaps below the wall, so, not a huge problem. The shed has its own metal water dam at the bottom of the wall, two sections for each wall. After caulking the gap where those sections meet the problem was solved. Putting the foam strips in took about 2 hours, the caulking a half hour. Not a big deal.

Looking at how much effort others put in for building a full fledged ROR or dome with pier from scratch, this is a super easy and super cheap build. The slide-off roof with counterweights works very well, and the 6x8' size and 5.5' wall height are perfect. There are so many advantages of a metal shed kit that has no floor, comes with a door and that you just have to screw together. At least in this climate without frost and snow. The lean-to shed can also be positioned free standing away from the house if you put the lowest wall facing South. That's because the NCP area is typically imaged above the NCP, so you don't have to go as low as the Southern sky where popular objects appear only for a short time during summer. Super happy with how it worked out.

[helicon]

Thanks for the info, not so big of a problem after all. Good luck with it. There are at least a few folks with observatories here. I saw a white domed observatory up in an elegant neighborhood situated atop a coastal hill. It was in a frontyard. Probably not too many clear nights (I mean even less than here 7 or 8 miles inland from the coast). I think a couple of people in the local club here have one too but I have not seen them.