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Post by Dragon Man on Mar 14, 2016 12:15:45 GMT
THIS WILL BE A PROGRESSIVE THREAD. PLEASE CHECK BACK REGULARLY TO SEE THE OBSERVATORY GET BUILT It's taken several years to organise but we finally got stuck into building the Observatory at our Snake Valley Astronomical Association's club site The Observatory itself will be a 'Roll-Away' instead of a 'Roll-off-Roof' type. (click on the photos to see full size)NOTICE - ALL THE IMAGES IN THIS THREAD HAVE STOPPED WORKING FOR SOME WEIRD REASON.
ALL THE IMAGES AND STORY CAN BE SEEN HEREHere is our current clubroom. It is a 4.2 x 6.0 metre shed: Here is the spot where the Observatory is being built, up against our Clubroom: Start with a pile of stuff to build it. A 3mx3m shed (10 feet x 10 feet) and lots of building material, doors etc. I made a start yesterday, (13th March 2016) and got a good head start on the Control room section. Checking measurements to match the shed size: Then starting construction. This is the desk area for the controlroom/warmroom. The Roll-Away shed will close up over top of it (you'll see what I mean later): Today other members arrived to help construction of the controlroom/warmroom: and we all got stuck into the next stage. Building the rest of the controlroom: and this is where we got up to at the end of the day. The framework for the full controlroom: More photos and Info soon, as the build progresses
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Post by Deleted on Mar 15, 2016 2:26:24 GMT
Congrats Ken on starting construction of the club observatory. I'm anxious to follow the progress.
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Post by howie1 on Mar 15, 2016 5:17:11 GMT
I keep procrastinating ... so you're motivating me Ken!. Gotta sell my light polluted city place n go country a bit for dark skies, fresh air, grow some veges and build an observatory! Great start.
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Post by Rick in NWArk on Mar 15, 2016 15:40:58 GMT
Woo hoo! Looking good so far!
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Post by Dragon Man on Mar 20, 2016 8:07:35 GMT
UPDATE 20th March 2016A few of us had a chance to get stuck into it again today. The rain has stopped and the sun came out Here's Tim bolting the frame down to the slab with Dynabolts: My son Jake doing his best to impress Looking inside the control room with the observatory front wall attached: A view of the front wall from outside: Today's work crew. From left to right, Jake, Me, and Tim The front wall is the fixed section of the Roll-away Observatory
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Post by ChrisV on Mar 20, 2016 12:06:03 GMT
Nice work. Go the Floyd.
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Post by Dragon Man on Mar 21, 2016 14:02:27 GMT
A couple from today of adding Sisalation (Reflective Reinforced Foil Insulation), and some of the roof sheets The Sisalation on the frame: Roof sheets go on: Making sure the sisalation keeps it waterproof inside:
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Post by Rick in NWArk on Mar 22, 2016 13:10:56 GMT
Go, go go! Great that you have the Time and Money to make this happen!
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Post by Dragon Man on Mar 27, 2016 13:44:25 GMT
Next stage:
Doorway cut into fixed end wall. This allows access from the Control Room to the Observatory area: Roof sheets on (2nd hand) and getting a couple of coats of paint (white to reflect the heat of the Sun)
Closing in the small front section and painted. This part is roofed and walled in Cement Sheeting: How it's all looking at the moment: These are the rails that the shed will roll on. It is 6 metre long Heavy Duty 42x42mm support C channel. It will double as a wheel guide and to stop the shed from blowing away in strong wind:
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Post by Deleted on Mar 27, 2016 21:14:22 GMT
Looking good Ken. Thanks for posting photos showing the construction progress.
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Post by Dragon Man on Mar 28, 2016 7:46:08 GMT
Looking good Ken. Thanks for posting photos showing the construction progress. Thanks Tim. Yeah, the photos of every step are to give people ideas for their own Observatory. They might not want to do it this way but see something they can use in their own plans.
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Post by Rick in NWArk on Mar 29, 2016 16:31:49 GMT
Great progress! Hope the weather stays optimal to get this finished!
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Post by Dragon Man on Mar 29, 2016 16:48:00 GMT
Yes Rick, we should get a lot more done. There's no rain on the forecast for a long time yet. We are back in drought. Have been for about 6 months now. Just had lots of cloud and the farmers keep praying for those clouds to dump some wet stuff, but it ain't happening.
You should see this part of our country Rick. It's dry and brown and all the watering holes are bone dry.Sheep and cattle walk around in slow motion looking for something to eat, but there isn't anything.
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Post by davy on Mar 29, 2016 18:00:47 GMT
We hit official British summertime at weekend with clocks going forward by one hour,, so its summertime here and its raining as usual,
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Post by Dragon Man on Mar 31, 2016 15:37:38 GMT
Not much done in the last 2 days. I added a few more wall panels and got some more painting done on Wednesday. Then that afternoon the wind blew some dust or something into my eye and it has caused quite a bit of grief. It had swelled so bad and filled with mucus that when I woke up this morning my eye was sealed shut! I went to the doctors today and he said something had been embedded up inside my upper eyelid and also scratched the eyeball (no wonder it felt on fire). He gave me the usual cream for eye infections and sent me on my way I didn't do anything today because my eye is blurry from the cream in it, and it's very sore. But here's the latest photo from yesterday showing a few more walls and some paint I'll be back into it tomorrow
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Post by Deleted on Apr 3, 2016 21:02:22 GMT
A great thread and really good to see an Observatory being built...........I take it there's a reason for it being called SNAKE Valley Observatory??!!
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Post by ChrisV on Apr 3, 2016 22:49:54 GMT
There's that movie called "snakes on a plane".
But in Australia it would have to be a pretty left field reason for calling it snake valley ? We never do anything "quite literally" as Jamie Oliver would say.
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Post by Rick in NWArk on Apr 4, 2016 15:39:30 GMT
A great thread and really good to see an Observatory being built...........I take it there's a reason for it being called SNAKE Valley Observatory??!! I made the same mistake and assumed there were a lot of snakes in the area... but no the town is on a river that was panned for gold back in the day, that carved the valley into a snake-like patch.
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Post by Dragon Man on Apr 5, 2016 14:03:07 GMT
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Post by Rick in NWArk on Apr 5, 2016 15:53:48 GMT
I'm very anxious to see the next steps!
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