Very nice indeed. Well done.

That's a unique construction project. What will the four blocks in 9883 be used for?

Wow. Sooo....when you find the asteroid that will hit the planet, causing us to send Robert Duvall into space to stop it, will they name it after you?

Looking forward to seeing your pics once the telescope gets installed.

the four blocks

well, the building is supported on 8 piers but the telescope has its own isolated pier that you can see in 9861 and 9865 (the slump blocks were removed before the floor was placed (9869).

the floor has a 24" X 24" hole in the center to allow the pier to come up into the hut, and even using 4X4's the floor had a wee bit of spring in it when standing near the center

the four blocks were placed under this cut out to give the floor a bit more stability when walking around inside

^^^^
That sounds like a nifty fix. Looking good!

thanks

the contractor is actually coming by this afternoon to finish painting the interior flat black

I should be able to start moving a few things into the building tonight - and start thinking about the pier - I am going to build a test pier out of PVC pipe first so I can adjust the height to what I need before I go and pay for one out of steel. PVC is cheap and easy to work with and will be a good prototype

Do you have to do anything to keep the temperatures stable, day to night, to protect the telescope?

nothing specific - it is going to be at atmospheric temp all the time. I am not cooling it because that leads to huge thermal imbalances

also, its un-insulated for the same reason, and the the dome reflects a lot of heat (its actually cooler inside than out)

That is a nice thing to have. And the dark skies.

This looks like a dream project, well thought out and built with a lot of attention to detail.

How large a piece of property is this on? How is the light pollution from surrounding properties?

quote:

Originally posted by nhtagmember:
nothing specific - it is going to be at atmospheric temp all the time. I am not cooling it because that leads to huge thermal imbalances

also, its un-insulated for the same reason, and the the dome reflects a lot of heat (its actually cooler inside than out)

Thanks! The only observing I have been around is getting to a site by car, unpacking the gear, setting it up and waiting for dark. Or attending several star parties where people had some pretty impressive equipment set up. Though I did learn about putting a dew shield around the lenses to minimize dew formation, but that was in much more humid climates many years ago. Should have thought about the thermal imbalances you mentioned as some of the other people wanted their equipment to stabilize.
Nice build !!

I am already researching some entry level CCD systems

I have a ZWO system that I picked up a few years ago but I have never been able to get it to work properly - bad drivers, poor cables, lots of hot cells in the chip

currently reviewing the Revolution 2 which is supposed to be pretty good and easy to operate