Category Archives: Projects

After a month away from construction because of holidays and other stuff going on, this weekend I spent some time working on the power for the piers. Photos to follow, but each pier now has an IP66-rated cabinet attached (which … Continue reading →

I took a detour on the way home from swimming to pick up some trunking and a few other electrical bits from Screwfix. Despite the twenty minute plus journey I was still sweating profusely after swimming which was a bit … Continue reading →

Whilst I was fossicking around in the workshop this week I came across about 15m of armoured cable that looked entirely suitable for running the power from the beer shack (which will have power connected from the house) to the … Continue reading →

Another quiet week, but I did at least dodge the rain and spend some time fitting a lock to the outside door on Saturday. I now need to fit handles and, as the only spindle I had was clearly going … Continue reading →

Progress is still slow whilst I wait for more bits and pieces to arrive. I’ve ordered an HP EliteDesk Mini to try out as a “pier-top” machine and weatherproof boxes for each pier which will contain most of the electrical … Continue reading →

So it comes to that time when I need to think about power. In particular 12V (or 13.8V) power to the piers to supply most of the kit that will be on them. Initially my thoughts were to have a … Continue reading →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →