We wrapped up the observatory shed today (at least mostly).  Still figuring out how we want to set some things up but I was fairly impressed by the rigidity of the setup (used a pier from durangoskies.com).  The pier is fairly versatile in leveling, etc. so it was relatively easy to set-up.  The plastic shed was a bit of work, mostly because of leveling issues that we may need to still work on.  Once that was set-up, we put the pier on the concrete and then put sand in the pier.  My goal tonight was just to get enough view of polaris to do a rough setup and lock down all the bolts on the pier and we got enough of a break in the clouds to do that.  Just for fun, I took one 30″ shot of Vega which showed the scope was reasonably aligned without any serious drift aligning.  Thanks to my friend for the use of the property!  Looking forward to enhancing the set-up and taking some nicer pictures on a clear (and moonless) night.  Some immediate to-dos are to put some red safety lighting in the shed, get a timer for bulb pictures, remove some hooks that jut out from some shelves in the shed (it hurts to hit them as you walk around the scope), and set-up some chairs, etc.  Anyway, mission accomplished for the day.  Pictures of the setting up can be found in my photo gallery (link above and/or to the right).

We continued with the shed construction today.  Focused mostly on the floor and we removed the template on the concrete base to check how the pier sits.  It was fairly level but will need some adjusting.  We’ve also come up with a good solution to secure the telescope from any would-be robber.  Next steps will be to put up the rest of the shed, secure the pier (and pour sand in the pier to make it more stable), and of course attach the wedge and scope.  Pictures can be found in my photo gallery with the link near the top of this page.

Is that how you even spell ain’t?  Anyway, today was a bit full.  Started at 8:00 by renting an auger (with extension bit) to dig the 12″ by 48″ hole we needed for the telescope pier.  An auger is fun.  An auger is cool.  I need an auger.  We dug the hole in about 20 minutes — would have taken us all day long to dig the same hold by hand and it wouldn’t have been as clean.  Auger’s should be as popular as iPods.  iAuger would be a cool name.  We also poured the concrete base for the pier and my friend Ken set up a nice template for the j-bolts that the pier will mount to.  We tapered the concrete from the 12″ tube to about a 14″ top to give the pier base a little more room.  Finally, we cut a hole through the shed floor which will fit around the concrete base.  Have to admit that I’m excited at the prospect of using the scope and being polar-aligned without hours of setting up and adjustments.  Next steps will be mounting the pier and putting up the shed and then mounting and calibrating the telescope for the first time.  In my gallery (http://www.gallery.roycosta.net), there are shots of the auger digging, concrete pouring (you’ll see the level on top of the wood template), and floor cutting.  Did I mention that I love augers?

The pier arrived at our friends’ house today.  Seemed to be in decent shape… need to file a little bit of metal to get the wedge to work.  We’ll hopefully do some digging Friday or Saturday for the concrete base.  We also got to see the ISS and Shuttle Atlantis fly by at about 9:20… very nice sky conditions.  The shed, etc. should work decently given the view of the Southern sky we’ll have.

We took down the rest of the shed today.  Barely got done and loaded pieces onto a trailer we borrowed before we were hit by a fairly bad storm.  We made it okay to my friend’s house.  Yes, astronomy — what an adventure.

Today we took down about 90% of my friend’s shed… fairly easy but with lots of ant colonies and spider nests. We dropped off most of the pieces at the observatory site. Will need to borrow someone’s pickup to get the roof and floor, etc. My son helped in these pictures.

Haven’t posted in a while. Between Winter and some construction on the house, we haven’t had a chance to go out with the scope in a while. But that’s inspired me and some friends to build a ‘cheapo’ observatory on their property. We’ll be using a plastic shed (made by www.thinking-outside.com) which has a removable roof. I’ve just ordered a pier (35″ high) from www.durangoskies.com. The owner, Dave, was very helpful in working with me on the pier and fitting it to my Milburn wedge. Hopefully we’ll have it in 2 or 3 weeks. Sam’s Club used to sell the shed but they stopped selling it the day I was about to order it. Thankfully, another friend was willing to sell me his shed since he wants to upgrade his shed. We’ll be pouring a concrete foundation (probably 48″ down) for the pier. I’ll post more updates as the construction plans continue.