I love your setup, the Cuban flags will bring good vibes ;) I'm Cuban living in Czechia and right now I'm in process of acquire a land in a small town dreaming to build mine there. You will be welcome ... someday :)
This was really a great informative video . for me roll off is the way to go. like you said it could pass off as a garden shed and looks good too .. I really enjoyed the building photos at the end , well done!
Very nicely done and you have a great attitude and understanding of working within the circumstances of a home base observatory. You make it work and move on.
Very nice and well designed observatory. This is a great way to go if you are skint, like me. Where I live we have 300 clear days a year but Bortle 8.5 skies!
I like your design and build.I have a similar situation in my backyard but I have always wanted a permanent spot for my 12.5 inch F7 cave.Im inspired! Thankyou.
Great video Mr. Kirk :) And it's a really good video to help budding backyard astronomers get over their mental objections to their own backyard "issues." I have just now found your channel, but I'm thinking you have spent a lot of time photographing and even possibly visually observing many awesome deep sky objects, Messier, planets... And, even though you don't have access to the entire sky, you'd be missing out on SO MUCH if you didn't have your observatory and telescopes. BTW this is one of the nicest looking roll off observatories I've seen. I've looked at several and you spent some time making the observatory look very attractive. I think that was well worth it, too. Well, you had a professional company build it. This must be the first one I've seen that was built by a professional company. It looks so good! Great job all round :)
My mantra in life is to just get on with it and make do with what you have, otherwise you get into paralysis by analysis and never do anything. I wish I had access to the E,S,W horizons, but I don',t so I have to make do with what I do have. Hopefully that came across in the video!
Exellent build , i thought the same way when i built mine , and my observatory is also suffering from light pollution. But as you , i thought that i had to work with what i got , so i built my observatory walls extra high due to wind and light pollution , and it works flawlessly. I don't have any horizons but i'm still able to get lots of objects in my view , and i also built a warm room. So now i'm using my equipment almost a 100% more then i would have done without an observatory , and it gives me great joy.
Very nice work - you have done a great job with that observatory, it works well in your location. I was thinking of something like this, however it would need to be completely pest and weather proof, as I am in Sub tropical Queensland. We get heavy rainfall and hail from time to time, while any hole approaching pencil tip size will quickly become a wasp mud nest, and the smooth running rollers will sound like stepping on a packet of crisps. I suspect yours would also have a colony of rodents, Geckos, Tree snakes, a Python and every insect in SE Queensland in it here after a few days! I'm keen on making this concept work if I can keep it properly sealed.
Great video, thanks for making it! I'd love to see a little more detail on how you seal out the elements where the roll off roof gaps meet up. Again, thanks for the video!!
Lovely job, and you've thought of everything. Unconventionally I'm going to have my roof roll to the south. My house is south and I'm hoping the roof will block some of the glare of the street lights down the gaps either side of the house. North and west are my best skies, like you say you have to make do with what you've got.
@@carlilsley7404 You're welcome buddy, I am glad you found it useful. Yep, you just have to get on with it and deal with whatever horizon you have. Otherwise you'll never get anything done and be setting up/tearing down forever which is incredibly frustrating. I am going to do a sequel to this video this week hopefully.
Many thanks. I went to Havana, lovely country and lovely people and food! No, no temperature control or humidity control at all. I don't bother with it and it would be very expensive in terns of electricity to run such a system in the UK. There is a gap around the top where air can flow in and around.
Lovely observatory and impressive mount! Is it belt drive? And I think I spy the SiTech controller - my Dad has one of those as part of a retro fit to what we think is a precursor to the AP mounts, that controller is a brilliant bit of kit. I remember using the school PCB etching facilities to make one of the original Mel Bartels stepper motor controller boards.. that's going back a few years!
I like how it looks like a garden shed. And the landscaping. I don't see diagonal braces on the rails. Also don't see a library shelf inside. Are those water cisterns?
Nice observatory and introductory video. I'm considering building an observatory and just wondered what the internal dimension of your observatory are, as you seem to have a good amount of space around your pier and telescope?
Hi Stephen Awesome set up I really enjoyed your RU-vid video. I'm in the Southern hemisphere , Australia. If I wanted to build an observatory would I have it faced South? And the roof roll off to the the North? Just like yours. Just wonder if it's the same like in the Northern hemisphere. Kind Regards Jim
Hi Jim - I am in Australia also, you would need a clear view to the south so you can easily polar align. Anything else is really up to your situation, there will always be limitations. One thing that can really help is to photograph a panorama of your backyard observatory/ scope location and use in Stellarium as a background. Once you have that setup reasonably accurate, you can simulate targets etc with the right context.
Hi, not really. Enough fresh air blows through the gap to sweep it away 95% of the time. Occasionally, if the temperature drops away very suddenly I can get condensation on the metal parts. So if I know the weather is going to do that I will place an old blanket over the peer and ensure the door is open to allow fresh air to blow through, which always works.
Hello, the walls are 70 inches high. It is always a compromise between wall height and horizon view (and stability since higher walls need a taller pier which can then induce wobble). Yes I considered roof automation but to be honest, it is no big deal to pull the roof back manually.
Another reason for building an observatory, would be if you have a really large and heavy one, such as my 17.5" f/4.5 on an equatorial fork mount, and fully computerized. All told, mine weighs in at about 500 lbs, and I use 2 computers to dive and operate the camera systems. BTW, I lived in southern Alabama, and have an old license plate if you want it!
Yes indeed, you make a very good point. Infact, in my own case, I have a Meade 14" ACF that weighs 60lb and is *very* difficult to mount into the dovetail at that weight on my own, even for quite a strong guy like me. So it has to be permanently mounted in an observatory. I should have mentioned that in the video. I will do so in a recut version. I am in UK and would happily take the license plate Paul but may cost too much to post/mail it to the UK. Thanks for the thought dude, I appreciate it.
Beautiful observatory! How do you seal the roof to the wall crack? I live in the Mojave desert in California, where 50 mph winds and blowing sand is not uncommon. Thanks for your video.
Many thanks. There is no seal at all, we do not have that problem in the UK. On the contrary, we want ventilation in there to blow away any condensation that may gather on the equipment due to the damp air we often have.
Nice build! How are those walls constructed? Is it typical 2x4 studs spaced 16” OC? What did you use for the siding on the exterior and interior walls?
Stephen Kirk you’re welcome, yeah I commented before I saw the ending. That shed looks fantastic! I’d like to build one someday when I move out of the city. It would have to stand up to the occasional hurricane or flood though here in southern Louisiana, and also make it dual purpose for other shed duties. Of course I’m thinking a little too far ahead of myself right now. I need to have a more serious telescope first haha. I just have an 8” dobsonian right now. Clear skies sir!
This is awesome and exactly what I need. I agree the domes are quite ugly looking. I will check out the guys you went with for this may I ask the size of yours please as that looks perfect? Thanks
It is 10ft x 8ft. And it is a dedicated built observatory, not a converted shed. Converted sheds you buy are very weak when converted into a roll-off-roof observatory because without the roof they become very flimsy and you have to do so much bracing of the timbers that you might as well build from scratch.
paul Mog make sure there is plenty of free space inside the observatory to the North. This is where you will sit and do most of your observing and imaging.
This looks like a perfect observatory for my garden too. Quick question. Did you lay a damp proof membrane under the slabs to prevent damp rising up from the soil through the slabs? If not, do you have any damp problems? Thanks.
Hi, no I didn’t use any membrane. I used thick bitumin paint on all under timbers to prevent rising damp into the wood structure and it has been fine so far for six years. I want the water to drain away when wet gets under the observatory (as it will do). A membrane could inhibit the draining away of any surface water that may get under the observatory.
@@tvnostalgia7477 Remember, sure, a membrane is fine on a foundation underneath a permanently sheltered building such as an orangery or a conservatory. But with an observatory water can potentially get underneath the structure. As such this water needs to be able to soak and drain away. If there were a membrane underneath the base on which the observatory is built the water can pool under the base and between the membrane and thus making the issue of rising damp a permanent fixture because the water cannot get away. Without the membrane the water can drain away. You do not want a membrane on such a structure.
I noticed it is not weather tite as I can see about a 1/2" gap between the roof and the frame edge. Hows that work when it is raining and blowing and what not? I can see you going out there this winter after a bad snow storm and finding a foot of snow on the floor... ok... just saw 2 comments down that likeonatree asked the same... did you ever post the closeups?
We don't get snow like that in the UK. The gap is deliberate so that I can get some air flow blowing through so that the condensation can dry out. We get cold and humid conditions here, very, very rarely cold and dry. No water ever gets in.
Ahhh... that must be nice. I live in the midwest here in the states. We know it's going to be a bad storm when the snow is coming 'down' horizontally! LOL So what about bugs?? Specifically stinging bugs like wasps? They will get in... was thinking you could get some heavy duty screen material made out of polyvinyl and tack it along the roof edge so it would 'seal' the gap when closed to keep bugs out. I'm thinking of doing a roll off design myself and there is no way I could get away with a gap. Was thinking of having some screw down rollers that would lift the roof an inch off the sill then I would be able to roll it over. I'll put the channels the rollers are in on the outside edge of the sill. I'll use some foam backer rod used for cement work as a seal when the roof is set down and it should be water and bug tite!
@@tubedude54 Nope, We don't get many of those here. A few bees and flies, that sort of thing but never had an issue with them nesting in the observatory. That said, I do check regularly. The season for those things is also very short here, just a few months.
20 degrees? above horizon? i'd stop long before that. i've started shooting objects no lower than 45 for quality and it's made a difference in data. Sure, I can start at 36 degrees above horizon (above the powerlines looking east in my backyard) but looking further through our atmosphere hinders the data quite a bit, and if you have outlying small towns the light pollution from them can effect those images taken at such a low angle.. observatory looks great though!
Hello I have been looking to build my wife a small place for her hobby. I see you have a Miami plate, do you live in Miami? I was thinking I could hire you to help [me help you :)]. I live in Lee, Florida. What do you say. Luis
I'm not worried about security and I give no clues as to where I live or what my alarm code is. I seriously doubt robbers and burglars are watching Observatory build videos on RU-vid.
I have removed the willow tree that is due south and I will do an update video. Regrettably the tree to the immediate East of the Obs is not on my property and I have no rights to remove it, nor will the neighbour do so despite me asking him.
