My personal observatory Project.

[JayTee]

This is a very exciting step once completed. Hope your building can go up soon.

[messier 111]

It's starting to take shape, thx.

[AstroBee]

Well, the next step has been taken. I spent $1500 on lumber and supplies this morning. It's being delivered tomorrow morning.

[JayTee]

LET THE SPENDING BEGIN!

My spending spree just kept going and going and going!

[AstroBee]

A very successful day today. Lowe's dropped off my lumber this morning around 9:30am.


We managed to get it all moved into the backyard by 10:30am


Figuring out how to make a perfectly rectangular building when the concrete contractors were off square by over an inch. That's my buddy, Fred, who's a great carpenter/furniture maker, thinking about how to do this.


We managed to get the east wall built and the studs cut for the west wall before calling it a day around 3pm. Temps are still clocking in over 90°f (32.2°c) here so we had enough for the day. To sort out any confusion, The east wall is the wall closest to the grass, west nearest the fence on the left. The wall is laying down where we built it and not in the correct orientation to stand up in this photo.

[JayTee]

Awesome, look at you go.

I don't really have much advice on how you make something square on top of something that isn't. I'm interested to see how you handle this.

Cheers,

P.s. one way to look at your temperature is that it is still hot enough to really enjoy a cold beer.

[AstroBee]

Build Day Two:
We managed to get all four walls finished and three of the four walls upright.


We also finished the two runners that the roof gables and rafters attach to. The one on the left had not been glued and nailed when this photo was taken.


It's starting to look like a real project now!

[AstroBee]

Awesome, look at you go.

I don't really have much advice on how you make something square on top of something that isn't. I'm interested to see how you handle this.

Cheers,

P.s. one way to look at your temperature is that it is still hot enough to really enjoy a cold beer.

The way we figured it out is by doing the math on just how far it is off square and adjusting the sill plates so that they are square. I had the concrete contractor place j-bolts in the foundation so they are set in place. We had to adjust the position of our holes for the j-bolts to offset the difference in square. By our estimate right now we are only about 1/4 to 1/2" off. We should be able to tweak that difference when we put up the final wall. The concrete guys had a little jig they used to place the J-bolts so they are all evenly spaced from the edge. As you can see from these two images. we had to make the adjustments to our sill plates. One end is almost centered while the other is offset towards one side.


Unfortunately, in doing this, that means the concrete pad is going to stick out at one end of the wall and be tucked under the wall at the other. We will add some flashing material to keep the water from hitting the concrete and coming in under the sill plate.

[JayTee]

We will add some flashing material to keep the water from hitting the concrete and coming in under the sill plate.

I used industrial strength exterior caulk where my building meets the slab, this caulk was added just last week we'll see how well that method works after this current rain storm.

Right now, just after the first batch of rain (.5") and after the last application of roof goop, both mitigating strategies appear to have stopped all leaks into my Obsy -- for now.


Question, I don't see on any of your slab photos where those J-bolts are located. Are they near the conduit that's sticking up near the middle?

[AstroBee]

Question, I don't see on any of your slab photos where those J-bolts are located. Are they near the conduit that's sticking up near the middle?

You can see them clearly in this older image from when the foundation was first poured. They are spaced out around the perimeter about 1.4" from the edge of the slab and apart from each other so that they do not interfere with the vertical studs. Except one of them did for some reason so in one section of the north wall there is a 20" space instead of the standard 16" centers.


The PVC pipes you see coming up near the center pad and on the right side of the photo are connected underground. That is so I can feed power and signal cables from my desk that will be in the far right corner of this image.

[JayTee]

Sorry about that. I confused using the J-bolts for connecting a metal pier to the concrete, with the J-bolts used to secure the building to the slab.

Are your scopes being set up on their tripods on the slab?

[AstroBee]

Are your scopes being set up on their tripods on the slab?

https://www.astro-physics.com/eagle6-ez

It will be a single scope in the observatory. That slightly off-center 4'x4' square is 24" deep and isolated from the surrounding pad.
The entire reason I decided to build the RoR is because I was gifted a Mach One and the Eagle TriPier by the widow of my good friend that passed away a few years ago.
I assisted her in sorting out and selling a bunch of his gear. I just felt that even though the Mach One is probably the lightest mount that Astro Physics made, it's still very big and heavy compared to my iOptron CEM70 which is the mount I will use for traveling to dark sky sites. I'll image my narrowband from the backyard and do broadband from remote spots.
If, down the line, I decide to put a pier in, I'll just drill holes for the anchor bolts. I've seen it done so I know it's possible. I'll have to get a custom pier made to the exact height I need.
The walls on the observatory are short so that I can get maximum exposure to the south. My views to the east and south-east are blocked by my home.
I plan on doing a full tour once we get everything complete.

[JayTee]

That slightly off-center 4'x4' square is 24" deep and isolated from the surrounding pad.

Cool, nice.

my iOptron CEM70 which is the mount I will use for traveling to dark sky sites. I'll image my narrowband from the backyard and do broadband from remote spots.

Very cool.

I plan on doing a full tour once we get everything complete.

Wonderful.

As usual, you have things well in hand.

Cheers,

[AstroBee]

Minor progress today on the RoR after discovering a major problem that took the better part of three hours to solve this morning.
After getting the four walls up and attached, we felt very good about it being square. Measuring diagonally we were within 1/8". Sadly, after looking at the walls from a distance, we noticed they were not level. It turns out that one corner of the pad is almost a full inch lower than the rest. With the RoR design, it's fairly important that the building be level to roll smoothly. We spent the better part of this morning shimming the north and east wall to make it level. Then we managed to get three of the outer panels on before calling it a day. We had hoped to get the entire building skinned today because we will not get another chance to work on it till Monday.

Today I also received another bit of sticker shock when I finally got a quote for the 40' of heavy-duty garage door track. For two 11' sections and two 9' sections I was quoted $900!
Anyone have a source that's cheaper than that?
I called around to 6 businesses here in the Vegas valley and only two would sell me the parts. One of them did not have the heavy-duty rails and their quote was almost the same as the source that did have the heavy-duty rails.

[SkyHiker]

These maybe?

If it is just to protect the roof from being blown off in the closed position, you only need to add braces at 4 spots not the whole track. That will be cheaper and might be easier, too.

[AstroBee]

It's been a bit since I posted an update. I've been so busy with work and my friend that is helping build the RoR is also crazy busy so for us to both have the same days off is difficult.
Anyway, A bit of progress on the project.
We've got the exterior sheeting up on all four walls.


I had to re-route my sprinkler line. In the top of this photo behind the fence you can just make out the white PVC pipe that makes a 90° turn. It just so happened to turn and run right where we needed to build the footers for the outrigger supports.


Most of that trench was going to be dug up anyway because it's the same path my conduit is running to carry the 2x CAT6 cables and fiberOptic line from the house to the RoR.


My poor boy, Sagan, wanting to know when the mess is going to be done so he can get access to the "grass" area of their yard again.

[helicon]

Really cool Greg. You are making great progress on the project!

[JayTee]

You are getting very close to that Eureka moment of, "I HAVE AN OBSERVATORY!!!" Said in your best Tom Hanks voice.

I'm excited for you,

[StarBru]

Your observatory build is really taking shape! It looks great so far and I can't wait to see it when you're done!

[AstroBee]

When the outriggers for the roof to roll onto go up is when it starts looking like more than a shed...
Lots of temporary shoring with the 2x4's right now. Only two days available to work on it this week because of work schedules so the progress is slow. We've got our footers dug out and placed and once everything is fully assembled and the roof is rolling right, the concrete footers will be anchored down even more with some concrete mix. My dogs will be happy to get their fake grass back!