{"id":30,"date":"2024-01-12T16:12:41","date_gmt":"2024-01-12T16:12:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stellarjourney.com\/main\/?page_id=30"},"modified":"2024-01-15T14:24:00","modified_gmt":"2024-01-15T14:24:00","slug":"observatory-construction","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/stellarjourney.com\/main\/observatory-construction\/","title":{"rendered":"Observatory Construction"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Building my Roll-Off Roof Observatory<\/em>

Before construction could begin, the first order of business was having three huge trees removed from our lot. That was the only part of the project that I didn’t do myself (with occasional help from the wife\/kids\/friend). So, after much planning the process started in July of 2010 with digging the footing for the Pier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The hole was three feet square by four feet deep, and it was a hot sunny July day, so you can imagine how much fun that was! A couple of weeks later we poured the footing and pier in one day with the help of my step-son, a friend, and a rented concrete mixer. As we poured, several pieces of 5\/8″ rebar were added in to strengthen the concrete.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The concrete pier consists of an 18″ square lower section (for strength) and a 12″ diameter upper section which ends up just above floor-level. J-bolts will hold a metal pier from there up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then, we dug the eight footings for the posts that hold the structure, filled them with concrete, and placed a J-bolt in each for the post brackets.
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So now, we were ready to start building! You can see the pier under the raised cold-room floor. All lumber used at this point is pressure treated (including the plywood deck).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Next, here we are framing the structure and sheathing it:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Each side has five of these 600# rated V-Groove casters over the winter of 2010-2011:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The structure is 10′ x 15′, the roof will roll off of the first 10′ and remain over the warm room when in-use. This will eventually house my 10″ f4 Newtonian reflector on a GEM of some sort – perhaps a used CI-700?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It was still pretty cold out when we got the beams that the roof rolls off onto up this March (’11). It was a relief to see everything work as planned. My assistant (wife) was very helpful for setting this up as it’s quite tricky holding everything in-place and securing it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We went with the LP Smartside siding so it matches the look of our garage. I finally got a framing nailer and that helped speed things up, should have bought it before starting this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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And here’s the door and trim done. I cut the door jamb lumber and trim out of 2×8’s. I used oil based primer on all sides as this is just pine and hopefully that will help it last a good long time. Took a while to cut and build all of this, but it helped pay for that nail gun. The door, 2×8’s, etc. for this part of the project we had around and cost nothing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Over the weekend of April 30th I picked up insulation and drywall and finished the warm-room. I installed a window so I can see what’s the telescope’s doing from the warm-room then I ran the wiring, insulated, and put up the drywall. It’s fairly cozy now. I still need a bat of fiberglass r30 and some foam-board insulation to finish off the ceiling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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On the weekend of June 11th I finally finished the pier extension and attached the LXD75 GEM and my 10″ scope. It’s fabricated from a large 1″ thick pipe flange at the base with a 5″x5″ square steel tube welded to it (gusseted). The top has two 8″x8″x3\/8″ steel plates (w\/bolts near the corners for leveling); one is welded to the tube and the other has fixtures welded on to accept the Meade tripod head for the LXD75 mount. I just did a “rattle can” paint job on the pier and later properly painted it:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The roof just<\/em> clears the rig when it’s swung to the correct position. I did a rough polar alignment but didn’t get to use it. On the weekend of June 25-26th I ran conduit and connected power to the pier from the OCS (Observatory Control System).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Progress has slowed down a bit, staying up all night star-gazing AND working on the observatory during the day can’t both happen on the same weekend.
On the weekend of July 16-17th I painted the warm-room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Also, I finished the soffit trim, so the observatory is sealed up pretty well against insects getting in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Finally, a big concern is managing the heat buildup during hot summer days. I left a screened 1-1\/2″ wide soffit vent that runs the full length on each side and here I add Gable vents. I got a small (5 watt, $38 on Amazon) solar panel and installed it on the roof, then ran the wires down to a 4″ computer fan ($6 on Amazon) and installed that in one of the gable vents. I then insulated the ceiling and that should help keep the inside of the observatory cooler. I might add a battery to the mix to keep the fan running into the evening to make sure the attic reaches thermal equilibrium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I was really surprised at how long this finish work took… adding trim around the windows and baseboard, laying carpet in the warm-room, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


<\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Building my Roll-Off Roof Observatory Before construction could begin, the first order of business was having three huge trees removed from our lot. That was the only part of the project that I didn’t do myself (with occasional help from the wife\/kids\/friend). So, after much planning the process started in July of 2010 with digging […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":201,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-30","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/stellarjourney.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/30","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/stellarjourney.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/stellarjourney.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stellarjourney.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stellarjourney.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30"}],"version-history":[{"count":26,"href":"http:\/\/stellarjourney.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/30\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":820,"href":"http:\/\/stellarjourney.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/30\/revisions\/820"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stellarjourney.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/stellarjourney.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}