Ad Astra Observatory

The Observatory is getting awfully close to First Light. At this point, I think the construction “to do” list (Jared doesn’t like calling it a “punch list” until he feels it’s complete) is getting pretty small, and the steel pier is being powdercoated.

But, I’m skipping ahead a little.

I was finally able to get my hands on some of the steel parts last week (yes, I skipped a couple of days — believe me, it was worse for me than it was for you 🙂 ), and I was able to give a final measurement to the machine shop for the pier tube.

They also sent me home with the base plate, to make sure it fit properly.

Jared and Jay came back out to knock out a few more to-do items; the hatch, ladder, doorknob (with several trips to and fro to Home Depot for this one, including a Saturday trip, for extra achievement points! woo!), belly board, gable trim… none of this stuff is hugely photogenic, mind you, but there was a moment on Saturday afternoon when I somehow made a transformation in my mind, from “things that need to be done to get the observatory built” to “things that need to be done before there is a big mount-and-telescope blocking free movement on the observing deck”.

Jay and I spent an hour or so, siliconing every bolt. Hopefully that will forestall any leaks.

Jared came back on Saturday to do a bit of touch-up on the pad, which had picked up some dings during construction, and to put in the doorstep, which gave me a chance to work on my design skills.

As an aside, one arcsecond of latitude is about 100′ (stays more or less the same across Earth’s surface), and one arcsecond of longitude is only about 78′ at 47º North latitude (it’s 100′ at the equator, but the meridians get closer together up here…). So the inscription on the doorstep is already accurate enough to place you in the backyard. Just a couple decimal points of added accuracy is good enough to resolve “inside the building”… but I ran out of room on the cement. 🙂

I spent a bunch of time working on the dome; I decided on a “home” position for the dome, found places to mount the 3 positional switches (upper and lower limits for the shutter, and azimuth home), and installed the shutter contact plates, which allowed me to hook up the shutter motor cables! I also hooked some red LEDs to the battery, so that in theory there is a light source under the dome. I had to move my electronics building system from the dining room table out to the observatory, because some of the “abstract” parts of the build (cable lengths, limit switch positions, etc.) now have a solid grounding in real, physical positions, so I need to cut cables to fit. I am happier and happier with the design of my motor control board, as it gives me easy access to a 12v power and ground rail. The observatory was ready to start having things moved into it, so I started pulling boxes from the shop and loading them in. That felt good.

I got to a point where I could put in a little “bling” for fun, so I added a bright LED to the nifty Lexan (Lucite? never could keep those clear plastics straight…) grab rail that Jared installed at the top of the ladder. I think it looks pretty boss, and makes a very nice safety feature very easy to see.

Hooking everything to the battery has made me start to realize where I will be wanting light switches, because it’s a pain to have to go all the way to the battery to turn the lights on (or move the dome, or…)

The Junior Astronomer has been having a blast getting ready to roll out there; she particularly liked twisting power cables together by chucking them into the drill… 😀

The astronomy gods are toying with me, at the moment; it’s been all gorgeous spring sunshine and clear, moonless nights for the past 5 days. Once the pier shows up, I am now ready to start installing the mount and scope and getting underway — so of course the clouds and rain are due back on the day the pier is due from the powdercoaters…

Bring it.