Ad Astra Observatory

This just in from The Rubber Meets The Road Department — the observatory structure build is underway!

The concrete has finally cured enough to pull the forms, including the very fun process of stripping the Sonotube from the pier.

There are some very interesting, “fractal” looking voids in the pier, and I’ve asked Jared to tint the Portland cement that he uses to fill those holes, so that the cool shapes can stay visible even after the surface is smooth.

Athena got moved to the Pile o’ Dirt (that will someday be a raised garden bed, but that’s another show), so she could continue to monitor the proceedings carefully.

The framing got underway on Wednesday, and it went pretty quickly. By the end of the day, all four walls were framed, the main ceiling beam was in, and they even tacked the window in place!

The window in the south wall was originally going to be a regular 3’x5′ “bedroom window” type, but Jared called me from Home Depot to let me know about a custom window that hadn’t been picked up, and was on sale. I drove down there to see it, and it’s a monster, 3-1/2′ x 9′, with upgraded latches, a vent, and three vertical sashes!

It really opens up the south wall of the observatory, and will be a great tool for me, to be able to get a panoramic view of the sky from the desk chair. It was definitely a worthy upgrade, and I got a chance to pick out my door, too.

The main doorway will be in the West wall, but I had Jared frame in a door in the East wall as well, so that when I am ready, I can also have a back entrance. The intent is to eventually put in a second observatory, and have people come to the observatory via a back gate (that is also not installed yet…), and at that point, it might be nice to enter the observatory from the other side. For now, it took a little extra framing work, but other than that, it’s just futureproofing.

Once the sun went down, the astronomy gods gave me a couple of suckerholes to peek through, so of course I went out to the observatory to see how things look, and I made a serendipitous discovery: because the observatory walls are aligned to the compass, and because the window has 4-pane grills (looks like a +), and because there is a “center” one, I now have a fairly accurate “zenith” marker, so I can tell at a glance if a given star (or planet or whatever) is rising or setting. Nifty!

Next up, the ceiling joists need to go in, the whole building can get clad in plywood, and the roof needs to go on. Then, on goes the dome, and there will suddenly be a building in the backyard.