Category Archives: Astronomy

Building an observatory. Design #7

Posted on June 4, 2019 by james

An addendum to my previous design post. The builder dropped the motor units off for the stair lifts that he thought might be butchered to make an automated roof mechanism. This first is the lighter weight one for the rack … Continue reading →

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My first meteor image

Posted on June 4, 2019 by james

Ok, so this was accidental, but I’m sure it counts 🙂 I found it whilst reviewing frames for my last star trails image. I’d seen a meteor that night and wondered if it was caught on camera, but didn’t initially … Continue reading →

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Another star trail photo and something “unidentified”

Posted on June 4, 2019 by james

I got a couple of hours out in the observatory after dark and set up the 450D again to capture some subs to make a star trail image. This is better than the previous night, but I’d cut the exposure … Continue reading →

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Star fails

Posted on June 4, 2019 by james

As the rest of the family has been seeing the observatory slowly being constructed over the last year and we had some clear sky I thought I’d have a go at something fun to show them now I’ve reached the … Continue reading →

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Building an observatory. Construction #73

Posted on June 4, 2019 by james

Pace has slowed a little of late, but I’ve kept things moving forward even if I haven’t been doing that much. Because it gets quite warm inside the observatory when it’s sunny, I installed a 100mm vent in the northern … Continue reading →

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Building an observatory. Construction #72

Posted on May 20, 2019 by james

The last week has mostly been one of flooring. I finished off the foam tiles around the last pier, taking a huge amount of time just to make sure I didn’t get things wrong and varnished the floor in the … Continue reading →

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Building an observatory. Construction #71

Posted on May 13, 2019 by james

A little delayed, the foam floor tiles for the scope room arrived today. I couldn’t just leave them sitting there so I spent a good half hour just playing with arrangements to try to minimise the cuts around the piers. … Continue reading →

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Building an observatory. Construction #70

Posted on May 13, 2019 by james

Gorgeous day today, though it started a little chilly despite the sunshine. I mowed around the observatory and did some prep work for laying the foam tiles, and as suggested by other observatory builders used some off-cuts of EPDM to … Continue reading →

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Building an observatory. Construction #69

Posted on May 10, 2019 by james

Allen bolts for fixing down the pier adapters arrived today, so this evening I got on with fitting those to the tops of the piers and putting the mounts back in place. There’s probably no reason why I couldn’t go … Continue reading →

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Building an observatory. Construction #68

Posted on May 9, 2019 by james

Nothing too exciting today. I swept the observatory floor, then hoovered, then hoovered again, and then worked barefoot to get about 80% of the scope room floor sealed with a coat of varnish this evening. It actually went very quickly. … Continue reading →

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