It's Finally Time To Build My Observatory

[Frankskywatcher]

That's exciting!

As Kathy pointed out, my concern even here in California would be that the garage door will not provide the same protection as regular roof from a bad weather. Even if it will hold snow would it provide adequate protection from heavy rain, without leaking over your equipment?

I was thinking the same thing water leaking in at different points along where the garage door meets the building and any other points, also summer heat beating on that roof and heat loss thru that door not being insulated .
I DO like those observatories that have a roof that either retracts or “slides” back to expose the scope.

[JayTee]

There are many water mitigating strategies used in this building.

Quarter round will be used all around the inside lip of the opening. This is used in hopes of diverting the water to not go into the observatory itself. The rails are going to have weather resistant material put in them making it difficult for water to use the rail as an entry point. Even still the quarter rounds will be between the opening of the rail and the opening of The Observatory hopefully directing that rivulet away from the opening. As I said, all of this is theoretical, I won't know how it works until we've got everything installed and then I'll use the hose to produce a torrential downpour. Then we'll know for sure how well or how poorly my strategies work.

Cheers

[Frankskywatcher]

I commend you for trying a different approach and hope everything works out for you, it’s very interesting by the way thanks for sharing your experience with us!

[JayTee]

All right, a big YAY! moment.

So the machine shop that proposed the Jack screw idea also makes house calls, whoda thunk it. Anyway, they came out yesterday drilled four holes in the plate, tapped those holes, threaded the bolt into them, but before the bolt touched the concrete, he inserted a 2 x 2" inch square of 1/8" plate steel to act as a landing pad for the bolt so that its pressure would be spread across more of the concrete surface. It took him 90 minutes to install the four Jack screws. It fixed everything. The plate is now perfectly solid and doesn't move. The pier is now installed on top of it and it doesn't move unless you hit it with your fist and make it vibrate. I figured that's normal. So now we're just waiting for next week when everything else will happen. So YAY!

You can just see the Jack screw under the pier.

Here is a blow up around that screw.

An ear-to-ear cheers

PS don't you just love the new color of my Pier. It's not made out of gold. That's what the sun did to the anodized black. Kind of weird!

This is what it looked like before the sun bleached it.

[Gordon]

Congratulations!!!

Onward and upward!!

[John Fitzgerald]

Any follow up? My opinion is that a garage door roof will leak, and it won't be practical.

[JayTee]

Tomorrow is a very exciting day. The building itself will be delivered tomorrow. It will be sans roll up roof. That isn't scheduled to arrive for another 4 weeks.

Now, to all the naysayers out there on using a commercial metal roll up garage door as the roof of the observing room.

This design, in my mind, has been simmering for over 4 years. My intent is to make this design work so in reality this is a proof of concept endeavor. I believe I have accounted for all the ways water could enter the observing room. The installer that I'm working with is also convinced that we can make this building weather resistant. We do not assume that the observing room will be watertight. For me, weather resistant will be good enough, because, aren't telescopes designed to be used outside which includes inclement weather.

Additionally, after all is said and done and if I can't make it work well enough, I do have a plan B.

Expect photos of tomorrow's building arrival and placement on the slab.

Cheers

[JayTee]

And we have touchdown!

The Observatory was delivered on Tuesday, no must no fuss. It got placed exactly where I needed on the slab and I'm already for the roof to be installed.

One small glitch, the Builder basically misread the specs of the building and made the north and south walls 16" too tall. The north wall at its current size basically obliterates 30% of the sky. It's a beautiful building but it is pretty much unacceptable.

Fast forward to today and the owner of the company that built the building said they will make it right. The first method for correction is to cut 16 inches off the bottom of the building and then reinforce it so that it is structurally sound again. The second option (and the better one) which was relayed to me later today, the owner said we'll probably wind up just making you a new building.

So my only question was how long is this going to take? He said, "we'll try to get it done as quickly as possible expect at least 2 weeks." This is okay because the garage door doesn't arrive for at least another 3 weeks. So all in all I got to see what my building's big brother looks like which gives me some idea of what my building will look like.

I am pleased, or at least I will be when the correct size building shows up.

And of course to make sure that you believe that it happened, here are the pictures.

Yay, it has arrived and is greeted by one of our horses.

These guys are experts at putting the building exactly where you want it.

It's almost in place.

Looking from the exterior door of the observing room into the warm room and the exterior door out the other side of the Obsy.

We have touchdown!

It also has a back wall -- with a window no less! That protrusion you see coming off the back wall is the landing pad for the roll-up door.

This looks really cool and isolated which is okay during the warmer months, but come this winter, trudging through X feet of snow might not be much fun.

So, where are we, I'll know by the end of the week.

Thanks for reading,

Cheers

[chris_g]

This looks really cool and isolated which is okay during the warmer months, but come this winter, trudging through X feet of snow might not be much fun.

I'd live in it in the winter!

[OzEclipse]

JayTee

Sorry to hear about the construction error.

Sounds like they are going to do the right thing by you.

Looks great!

Joe

[Butterfly Maiden]

Frustrating and exciting times for you there JT.

I hope all goes well with your replacement.

[SkyHiker]

I would not change it. Since you had your mind set on this skewed roof with roll off door, the building had to be asymmetric and that compromises the North side FOV. But that's the area of least interest so you don't lose much. With a roll off roof you would not have had this problem. You need those walls to be high enough to shelter the gear from the wind, and to walk around. For all those reasons I would keep it as is. The height of the South wall seems to be just right to me, and it looks like a nice building, too. I would not like to have to crawl around inside if it is 16" shorter.

[JayTee]

For all those reasons I would keep it as is. The height of the South wall seems to be just right to me, and it looks like a nice building, too. I would not like to have to crawl around inside if it is 16" shorter.

I hear what you are saying, Henk.

I have mulled this in my mind over and over. The one thing that makes the current wall height untenable is you have to add an additional 24" onto the North wall height. This additional 2' is caused by the rolled-up roof coil. This puts the North wall at over 10' tall and it then erases nearly 50% of my night sky. The lower wall height was to accommodate the RUR coil diameter.

Cheers,

[AstroBee]

Are you taking into consideration the height you are going to need for that garage door to clear the mount and telescope? It already looks too short for it to clear the scope. I'm just making that assumption based off your previous post with the pier in place.

[SkyHiker]

For all those reasons I would keep it as is. The height of the South wall seems to be just right to me, and it looks like a nice building, too. I would not like to have to crawl around inside if it is 16" shorter.

I hear what you are saying, Henk.

I have mulled this in my mind over and over. The one thing that makes the current wall height untenable is you have to add an additional 24" onto the North wall height. This additional 2' is caused by the rolled-up roof coil.

I don't get that. The rolled-up roof coil hangs off the top of the North wall about 2 feet in diameter, how does the wall height depend on that so long as it is taller than 2 feet?

This puts the North wall at over 10' tall and it then erases nearly 50% of my night sky.

Realistically you will be mostly using altitude of 45 degrees and up, in that area you may not lose any. It looks like with a taller wall you could still see the Southerns skies from 20 or 30 degrees up.

Looking at your first drawings I agree with Greg that your scope may bump into the roof or will be inconveniently close to it.

[JayTee]

Are you taking into consideration the height you are going to need for that garage door to clear the mount and telescope? It already looks too short for it to clear the scope. I'm just making that assumption based off your previous post with the pier in place.

I've done more trigonometry in the last 4 months than I did all throughout High School! Theoretically, the RUR should close without touching my 6RC on the CEM 70 -- theoretically...

[JayTee]

It has been decided, the building manufacturer is going to cut the bottom 16" off the current building. You can bet that I'll be watching this very closely. But they do guarantee that the building will look as it did before they started the work only shorter. Because this is my second building from these guys I trust them.

Pictures to follow, during and after this procedure.

[JayTee]

In the meantime, the conduit has been trenched in place and we're ready to do a wire pull.

Oh, and one of our horses, the two-year-old, a curious and large animal, tried to help out in the trenching process.

[JayTee]

Change number??? (whatever it is), I am now getting a new building built to the correct specifications. The builders felt that altering the current building would, in the long run, cost more than building a new one. So yay, I get another new building that will hopefully be here before the end of october.

[Kerry C.]

I hope you get this all sorted out before North Idaho’s inclement weather starts visiting you. It’s that time of year when it can arrive anytime.
On another note, I for one am your side of this design. We need more innovators like you…
Kerry