Tomorrow morning at 5AM I embarce on a new business journey...

[masraum]

Originally Posted by flatbutt

I wonder...are those trees destined for the fireplace or do they lie low on the East-West line?

Good point, they do look like they would put a pretty big damper on the amount of sky that you could see.

[masraum]

OK, Mike, how's it going? You've been at it 3 days now or did you take today off?

[Eric Hahl]

Originally Posted by LWJ

This is awesome! Paging Eric Hahl...

Nice! Wish I had the space for a nice observatory now. At my last property I went the easy route and just purchased a pre fab Nexdome. It worked OK, not great, but it kept the equipment outta the elements.

[Pazuzu]

Holy crap, I've been out there 4 long days, my body is broken, what in the heck did I get myself into???

There is a good Southern view, one more tree is going to be removed.
The East is a wash between Sealy and then Houston. The West is dark. The north has lots of trees, they might clear more out.
20x20ft with a warm room, roof is shallow so you can get down to about 18 degrees above the peak of the roof, the walls are under 7' so you can get down to about 10 degrees everywhere else.

We're pier mounting his 11" CPC on a wedge, which is the imaging rig. He has two more scopes on tripods that he'll deploy as needed.

[Pazuzu]

Originally Posted by javadog

OK, stupid question...

Why are the walls not standing plumb? That's normally what ya do when ya raise and brace them....

That was day 1, we had not anchored the walls to the floor yet. This was day 3, walls anchored and glued to the concrete pad, tied to each other, and sheathed.

[javadog]

Ah, OK. A little more work to do it that way,

[Pazuzu]

Originally Posted by javadog

Ah, OK. A little more work to do it that way,

Because you've built lots of observatories and therefore know that our method was more work?

See, there are rails on two walls, where the entire roof assembly will be rolling back and forth, 40 feet in total. To do that, you need to make sure that the rails, and therefore the walls that they are mounted on, are parallel. Like, parallel to 1/8" or less across 40 feet.

So, perhaps we built all 4 walls, let them rest off to the sides, THEN put a great deal of effort into bringing them together, squared and parallel. Perhaps. But hey, maybe it's "a little more work" than needed huh?

[70SATMan]

Mike, given the rails tolerance, how do you deal with thermal expansion?? Any issues with that causing binding using a wooden framed structure?

I worked for the company that built the first Keck Telescope structure, structure drives and mirror segment drive controls. We also designed and built several other radio telescopes like the South Pole Telescope and one of the ALMA VLA designs.

They are of course built a bit differently . Your project has me intrigued. Waiting to see how it progresses!

[masraum]

Awesome stuff, Mike!

[javadog]

Originally Posted by Pazuzu

Because you've built lots of observatories and therefore know that our method was more work?

See, there are rails on two walls, where the entire roof assembly will be rolling back and forth, 40 feet in total. To do that, you need to make sure that the rails, and therefore the walls that they are mounted on, are parallel. Like, parallel to 1/8" or less across 40 feet.

So, perhaps we built all 4 walls, let them rest off to the sides, THEN put a great deal of effort into bringing them together, squared and parallel. Perhaps. But hey, maybe it's "a little more work" than needed huh?

Hey, don't have an aneurysm... it was just a question.

No never built an observatory but I have been in the construction business my whole life and those tolerances aren't any big deal. I would have done it differently but, so what?

Have fun.

[Pazuzu]

Originally Posted by 70SATMan

Mike, given the rails tolerance, how do you deal with thermal expansion?? Any issues with that causing binding using a wooden framed structure?

I worked for the company that built the first Keck Telescope structure, structure drives and mirror segment drive controls. We also designed and built several other radio telescopes like the South Pole Telescope and one of the ALMA VLA designs.

They are of course built a bit differently . Your project has me intrigued. Waiting to see how it progresses!

Thermal expansion is minor compared to the fact that a 2000 pound roof will be rolling across these 20 foot unsupported walls, the whole building will probably bow out more than any thermal expansion. I'm going to test it, and add some corner braces as needed.

We're going to end up building two more of these, but LARGER. Like, 20x35 feet. Those will be a metal skeleton, I have a welder/fabricator on my team now that can do the design and stress analysis. Those observatories will be remotely run, so they need to work every clear night without anyone babysitting them. This one is only going to be used while a person is there.

[70SATMan]

Nice! Can’t wait to see more pics of the progress.

[jyl]

Its not a legit observatory without a sky-pointing boob shape!

[masraum]

Originally Posted by jyl

Its not a legit observatory without a sky-pointing boob shape!

LOL! I think that's the next one that he's building.

[Tobra]

Some sweet windy roads out by Cat Spring

[RANDY P]

Gotta ask- what's the client "observing"?

rjp

[Pazuzu]

Originally Posted by masraum

LOL! I think that's the next one that he's building.

Yes, come Friday I'm off to build a Sky Boob.

[A930Rocket]

I see the framing is held back from the edge of the slab? Is there a reason for that? My concern would be water intrusion.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by RANDY P

Gotta ask- what's the client "observing"?

rjp

Out this way, not much to observe but the sky, trees, and critters.

[flatbutt]

Originally Posted by Pazuzu

Because you've built lots of observatories and therefore know that our method was more work?

See, there are rails on two walls, where the entire roof assembly will be rolling back and forth, 40 feet in total. To do that, you need to make sure that the rails, and therefore the walls that they are mounted on, are parallel. Like, parallel to 1/8" or less across 40 feet.

So, perhaps we built all 4 walls, let them rest off to the sides, THEN put a great deal of effort into bringing them together, squared and parallel. Perhaps. But hey, maybe it's "a little more work" than needed huh?

That's a huge ROR!