Building My DREAM OBSERVATORY 

You have to take that big boulder and make it a landscape feature for your shed. Right near the entrance so you are reminded what it took to build it. Love the video

C14 ready on the right 😆

Someone probably already identified the metal parts. But just in case, it is a "work-horse" bridle. More specifically it is the "bit" the part that goes in the horses mouth. It probably was hand forged.

My 4 year old son get very excited to see your video because of the construction tools. For a role off roof your choice of the the wind sheltered spot is a wise choice for a roll off roof. its also nice to see you did not take a chainsaw to your woods like most people do. It took a long time to grow those trees. Your Mystery Iron item you dug up looks like some sort of horsed bridal or harness accessory.

If there's ever a next time, take the blade off your recip saw and using it's now bladeless head, use it against the sonotube to get out air bubbles. MUCH quicker than tapping.

Nice to see the steel toed Crocs. Construction footwear of discerning professionals. Great video, really enjoying the journey.

I love to do things myself. Anything. Electronics, lighting, electrical wiring, building... Things get ugly, often messy... But you really do enjoy doing them, and the sense of pride while using them is nothing you can describe. Even the imperfections seem like part of the plan... 😂 Get it done Niko, here's my view for the algorithm.

Welcome to NH. Enjoy our rocky soil and semi cloudy skies. Glad you're able to be in bortle 3 though. I'm in bortle 5.

I think this is the first time i watch an entire youtube video without missing a second.... i feel like i just lived my dream trough it :D good job and great video, amazing project.

Nico, enjoying your channel. You will have fun doing this yourself. Very rewarding. I have been enjoying your journey. Tony, your friendly Canadian subscriber. Thought I would send you a couple of thoughts regarding the dream observatory I recently just “more or less” finished. I build a 10x12 roll off. Love, love, love it. Some thoughts. 1) don’t cheap out on the fasteners that you use (screw everything. If you F,,,,,up, you can easily redo. 2) over build cross supports for your floor as rectangles are weaker than squares. Use lots of cross supports and 45 degree supports, for the floor structure. Use 2x6 for all your walls and floor construction. At least 1” subfloor. Glue and screw floor. That way, you will have a structure that does not flex, (less vibration). I used a very strong and light roofing that Home Depot Canada sells. It is a wavy reconstituted thin asphalt roofing. Did I mention it’s wicked light, and very strong for Canadian winter. Wheels for your roof track, use wheels with grease nipples, so they can always be maintained! HD also sells a terrific pre primed mould resistant wood siding. It looks great and will save you grief down the road. Heavy, but makes your structure even stronger, when you screw it in. Use bracing on your walls at 45 degree angles screw it in under tension. Makes the building much more resistant to wind and storms. Makes it much stronger too. Metal rolls are pre punched and easy to install, with screws. DON’T BUY YOUR LUMBER FROM HD! Their wood is shit! Go to a lumber store, with a yard you can browse to pick out your wood. All beams have a crown, not perfectly straight. When building your roof structure, ensure that all your beams are installed with the crowns one way. That way your roof will not have dips and valleys. Incorporate ample ventilation in your roof. I insulated mine as it’s really only warm a few months of the year, where I am. I added a big buddy heater with a 20lb propane tank outside the structure. It’s great for taking the chill off, if you work out there, for any substantial period of time. The 18,000 btu model has a hose kit for using the heater with a 20lb tank. I would invest in a combo set of Good quality CORDLESS Drill / IMPACT DRIVER/ hell: CIRCULAR SAW for your build. They will last for years. Every house needs some serious power tools. Forgot,,,,,a GOOD QUALITY HAMMER yeah,,,,,a couple of HD SAW HORSES will serve you well for the project. 10x18, building is a lot of sawing , angles cutting, drilling, screwing. One more MUST have,,,,,a speed square. ( it’s a triangular tool that is indispensable, if you want to build a square , not lopsided building. HEY, owning a home, those tools will pay you back in no time! Do not cheap out!!! Buy good tools, and fasteners! Nail your walls together, but screw everything else. Enjoy my friend. Have fun. Take tons of pictures!

I love your channel, and love the fact that you're now doing well enough with this channel to follow your dreams. Congrats on that, and congrats on being a homeowner! But now building your OWN observatory from scratch, by yourself, is a laudable project. I've been a DIYer for decades, and the personal satisfaction that follows after you finish your customized project is always worth the pain and hard work. Clearly you need lots of prior planning, and you almost can't overthink your wants and needs. My experience with using contractors to do projects almost always ends up with both concessions AND cost overruns, and their process focuses on just finishing, whereas your process focuses on perfecting. I can't wait to see the final result!

Could that iron thing be a snafle bit for horses? Surly the lumber industry used them back in the days... Good luck on your build!

Thank you very much for your videos. I am in the beginnings of astrophotography and you are a great source for so many things. But I can tell you something about composting: You need some kind of sturdy net, like a metallic one, at the bottom of your compost area. Unless you like visits from all kind of rodents and such. I hope that helps you, buddy. Clear skies.

Happy to see your going to get your observatory! Can't wait to see the big projects you'll be able to take on.

As a builder using the metric system, in Australia we call it the "3 4 5 rule" peg out your shed footprint 1x3m side and 1x4m side, to make it square close off the triangle with a 5m hypotenuse and voila you have 2 sides of your shed marked and they are square....

Congratulations - always happy to see people leave the rat race and be successful working at what they love!

Living your passion! Inspiring!

Really interested and looking forward to the build thread!

Love this build idea. I just built a fairly large sliding wall using unistrut and unistrut trollies. Engineered properly, I could see using a system like this to make a small roof move.

What an exciting project! I understand the feeling of "I woke up early for a full day of working with concrete". It's not like you can do some of it, stop and come back later. Once you're going, you're going and it doesn't stop until you're done :p

1 hour is a kid we move to Arizona. My next door neighbor worked for NASA. And he had a homemade observatory in his back yard, it was so cool.

Looks like you are having a lot of fun on your' archeological dig. The mystery item you found looks like a bit from a horses' bridle. Good Luck, and remember, measure twice ( or five times in my case), cut once.

Cool project! I wonder if a 12+" EPDM roof pipe flashing seal might make a good vibration-isolation bond between your pillars and the floor? Dektite makes one in a 9"-20" pipe diameter.

Hey Nico! You’re the first person who got me into astrophotography. Since then I’ve shot in Oregon, Hawaii and Mass. I’m in central MA right now. Lmk if you need any help with the observatory! I’d love to lend a hand. Happy shooting bro.

Hi Nico, as ever your commentary is always informative and enjoyable, definately one of the good guys out there! Please feel free to ask any questions, it's fun and strange to see someone who is really always the expert struggling in a very open way. If you need any more constructive help for your next steps please ask, it can be very easy or hard! Plan all your cable routing up front, that'll be the frustration later if not . Keep up the channel work, great stuff! P.S. Next time don't forget to where safety socks in your crocks ;)

Once you've finished your observatory I have a suggestion for a video. At the moment I use an Askar 80PHQ and anyone who has used this scope would know why I am considering upgrading to the Askar 130PHQ. The quality of images from these quads is remarkable. The one thing that stops me doing so is changing the all-up loading on my AM5 from 7kg to almost 17kg and a search on RU-vid gets zero examples of anyone doing this. The closest I can find is a 10kg Dob. The ZWO website shows a 12kg 11" Celestron that is obviously setup for planetary imaging with no filters, focusers etc. At the moment my guiding is hovering between 0.16 and 0.45 and I don't think I'm the only person who would be interested to know what sort of effect you get when you get close to the weight limit on various mounts that have a limit of 20kg.

Congrats on the Bortle 3 property, and that you are able to do this full time! My wife and I made the jump to full time amateur astronomy in 2016, and haven't looked back! I'm super inspired by this build. We just picked up some land under Bortle 3 skies (about 8 hours from you, in Nova Scotia). Hoping to build our observatory late this year or early next. Our goal is to do a domed observatory, and have it open to the public for EAO, and as a remote observatory as well.

There should be insulation between the ground and cement when pouring columns - you can lay thick roofing material or pour cement into a plastic pipe, the depth is at least a meter, otherwise in spring, after frosts, the column may "float" and skew.

Good for you, Niko. Congrats! Hope you use that large flat rock as the outside threshold. It'll be a good memory for you.

Amazing DIY observatory 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

I just finished mine about a month ago and it is a game changer, I have so much more enjoyment from the hobby than ever before. I did a budget build with a new metal shed I got from an auction and converted it. I didn't put a pier in cause I wasn't sure if I was going to stay at this location or eventually move in a few years. Gratz on making it happen. I look forward to seeing your build and the projects that come from it.

Great video Nico, good luck with the construction! I dream that I will be reviewing your video when I build my own observatory when I am back to the US.

Clean up that massive rock and make it a feature stone with a name on it for the house or observatory. Great video!

From one librarian to another, good for you, man! I’m envious…

Congratulations Nico! Love your work and influence and looking forward to seeing the new work your new place will allow you!

Unquestionably a great milestone for your. Happy that your Dreams closer now to realization. Best wishes.

Thank you for a well thought out and presented video diary. I'm looking forward to the next installment.

You could do a half wall with tracks mounted on the outside and have the half walls be seating and table. I watched the video where you visited Alan and he seemed to have trouble with bugs and whatnot, snow moisture etc, and the rails being a trip hazard. All that would go away in my opinion by making it not mounted on the ground but being resting on a lets say chair height wall where the tracks sit in a recess. But to avoid it being super ugly the mouse might need to be a bit longer to have enough wall for rails to go onto when you slide the top half of the house backwards. Basically a combination of Alans sliding roof and sliding house, a hybrid solution. At least thats what I'd go with. I also don't recommend using wood for the top structure, it will warp sooner or later. Maybe use metal tubes welded and the sides should connect to the upper portion as a triangle rather than a single plane. Doesn't have to be a big angle, but that will certainly help. If you need inspiration for structurally stable construction look up cranes at harbours used for container loading/uloading. It is essentially the same. A metalworker with welding experience from a shop could probably also give you tips on how to construct something like this. Maybe you have a metal workshop in your area. Those bigger shops usually also have pretty big high mounted cranes in their halls and they need to service and troubleshoot those and they can tell you exactly what problems you will face.

Love this and looking forward to more from this build series! Congrats!

So fun to watch someone work through an interesting project.

I work with concrete every day and I gotta say you did everything really well for never doing anything like that before. And yes best way to do something that has hardware for attaching something a wooden template is the way to go! Looks awesome so far!

So excited for you! Thanks for taking us along on your new journey!!!

So inspiring !!! Eager to see the rest of the series !! Good luck !

Excellent job Nico!

Incredibly happy for you Nico! Max

Good Luck Nico. Your earlier tutorials taught me how to do Astrophotography with a camera and my luck finding a good Celestron 4 inch telescope and having an extension roof right outside my window. I think Astrophotography is the perfect way to learn about photography in general. Layering, exposure time, manual settings, ISO settings, fast lenses.

Good luck Nico. Nice pair of piers to start with!

Way to go fella! Follow your dreams and aspirations, and document them for us, especially the rocky bits!!! ;) So pleased for you ..

This is really timely, since I'm a few months away from starting to build my own observatory too. I had planned to use a dome, but the more I think about it, the more I think a roll-off roof might be better for me (though I have already got the dome--might look at selling it). I'll be watching your progress and hope to get some ideas!

Love it! Looking forward to the rest of this story.

Good luck on your build. Looking forward to seeing the progress.

Surely it's going to be a great observatory! Can't wait for the first light from there.

Amazing progress Nico; that concrete mix looked pretty darn good to me! Also, the thing you found in the hole was a steel snap lead, same thing you would find on a dog leash.

Looks like a great project. Lots of potensial. Ill be looking for more on this. Good luck. Astrobill

It's inspiring to see you make your dreams a reality. the entire process seems extremely fun (also challenging) and totally worth it. you earned this nico!

Congrats!! Go Nebulae!!!

Good on ya! I can't wait for the next installments. Cheers!

Looking forward to completion of this project and the results it brings to your astrophotography for the channel. Good times!

Congratulations on beginning to make your dream a reality Nico. Important in life to have dreams and goals, this is very inspiring. Cheers Si

So awesome. What an adventure - not just building the obsy but moving and doing what you love full time. I'm a couple weeks behind you on my own obsy build. Can't wait to wait next update for any ideas I can use!! lol

Love the video, and I can't wait to see how this goes to the end. A couple things, I don't know why, but without seeing it, I just couldn't picture you doing work like this. It's awesome to see though. The second thing, my best guess for what that mystery item is you dug up. I would guess it's part of an old horse bridle. Probably from back when they used horses to drag the logs out.

When my wife and I were looking for homes in Maine couple years ago, one of my undisclosed criteria was, "what Bortle is it?"

Clear skies forever and a day Nico. Take care, have fun and keep on looking up

This is awesome Nico, so glad to see everything is coming together.

Congratulations Nico!!!! An amateur astronomer's dream come true! Can't wait to see the next videos! Great job and lovely new house!!!

Nice work! Look forward to seeing more of the build. I unearthed a rock similar to the one you dug up from my yard. Was nearly the end of me…. Now it’s a feature in the front yard 😂

Well done. Great plans. You have likely already thought about it but when running power, run 2x as much as you think needed (at least 3 circuits of 20 Amp if not 4), in the same trench run a cat 5 data cable, just in case, and a fishable conduit to add whatever the new thing you will want out there in the next 30 years. Easier and cheaper to do it up front than to excavate later. Have fun, be patient, lift with your legs, be careful on ladders and roofs, and Oh, yeah, clear skies.

Congrats on starting your observatory! I look forward to seeing your progress. I too would love to have one. Alas, I rent an apartment and do not have access to land of my own. So, I have to live vicariously through people like you haha

Looks great Nico. Can't wait to see the next video!!

Cepheus and Cygnus! 😅👌🏻 Probably my two favorite constellations for astrophotography too! Good to have on your arm on cloudy nights! 😃👍🏻

Can't wait to watch how this progresses! I'm hoping to build an observatory in the next 2-3 years. Have to get power on the land first. Will be great to go from Bortle 7 to 3

Oh nice, this is exciting! Wishing you all the best for your project 👍 I will definitely be checking the progress

So happy for all your success! Love your videos!

Very exciting project, Nico. Looking forward to your next video!!

Yes I'm so excited for you man!! I'm itching to tear down my above ground pool to build an observatory soon

SUPER impressed by the design, build and documentation of this project. The first two are challenging on their own. Filming it all in such detail is a real grand slam. Congrats on gaining several levels of DYI XP.

Awesome job man. 🙌🏼

Proud to see you repurposed some of the old shed! Currently saving any decent sized lumber remnants I come across for mine. You'll be exhausted, but at the same time, have more pride in it when you finish because you built it yourself. Anxiously following this build! BTW.. Astronomy Librarian: you gave away one of your knowledge secrets lol. Sounds like an awesome job!! Also, would it be feasible if in the future you wish to do more with your southern sky, to just place a pier on the hill, and have a portable setup remotely controlled from your observatory?

Looks great. I was going to build my roll off by myself, but I got injured just before starting the project. I ended up having SkyShed build it for me. This was 18 years ago when SkyShed actually built observatories. It's the best investment I ever made for my astronomy hobby. Looking forward to your final results.

Interesting project that I will follow. Currently trying to learn the different aspects of astrophotography so your channel is a goto for me. I especially like diy stuff, like the barn door tracker video, which I will try to make an own version of. Good luck with the observatory build.

Hi 👋, NebulaPhotos , I have always enjoyed your territorial, I am thinking of building a Observatory , or just a dome housing for the telescope, I have even thought about constructing something in the attic as my property is an old mill. Some point in the not too distant future. I’ve got to re-roof my roof, and in the attic, there is a big oak frame construction, that I could quite easily mount a telescope into then finding a way of sliding back the roof, food for thought, whether there’s enough money in the budget to do it, especially as my building roofline is well above the trees at the moment, part of my problem is that I live in a valley, obviously next to a river, which the mill used to be run bye, I’ll wait and see how you progress and how you do your sliding roof, good luck for the future. I’ve always been impressed with your photography and your territorials, explaining how and where are used to set up the equipment., I look forward to part 2 😂 , Phil from the moulin France.

Hi Nico, for my personnal observatory, I also did incorporated into the concreted foot a tubing with ethernet, usb & 220V cables. Like this, I will have a perfect cable management. Best whishes for the house building. SteF.

Thanks!

Glad to hear that you get paid from your work here on YT 🤩👍 Your videos are always inspiring and well made 👌 Thats why I watched many of them many times to try to learn myself 😄🙏 Looking forward to see this series 🙂

This is awesome! Congrats!

All the best! Waiting for future videos and updates to see how it shapes up.

Awesome!!!!!!

My back and knees hurt just watching you do all of that manual work, but kudos to you for making this a DIY project. Good luck on the build!

Excellent start looking forward to your next videos

Great stuff Nico looking forward to seeing the rest of the build, 2 piers as well I'm jealous lol.

That is an awesome project, look forward to seeing the finished product!

Starting to take shape Nico, looking forward to seeing the next edition. This looks so familiar. Suggest using a little disc grinder to smooth off the concrete top and make a slight bevel on the edges.

Congratulations! God bless!!!

Nice job! Looking forward to following along.

Congrats, Nico. You deserve it!

I have plans for a roll off roof observatory myself. I just installed the second concrete base for it.

Congrads on making your dreams come true. As far as the shed goes (regarding footing) looking into what is called a trench pour. Places like Home Depot rents a trencher. You trench out the perimeter of the shed, to the depth you need and just pour the cement into the trench. Also, call some of the local cement companies: sometimes they are looking for a place to dump excess cement, if they are working in your area. Just a thought.

Looks great Nico! Can't wait to see it when it's finished.

Woot! I'm looking to start mine next year. Got too many other projects to do first at our place.

Congrats bro. Finally your dream came true.❤