Ad Astra Observatory

I just realized that I need to account for another dimension when constructing the pole seats; that is, they need to be “splayed” to the sides to reach the opposing corners of the next ring, but (this is the part I forgot) they also need to be “raked” towards the opposing corners of the ring.

Luckily, after much back-of-the-napkin trigonometry, it turns out that the “rake” angle is exactly 30°, because of the regular hexagon shaped created by the opposing triangular rings. But the “splay” angle and the strut length is changed by this new data as well.

I’ve added the new calculations to the spreadsheet. I am hoping that I’m close enough to get something cut out tonight.

I also need to recalculate the spacing between the pole tips. I am just going to do that empirically; I’m going to measure the distance that’s in the model I’ve got, then set the drill points such that the distance is what I desire.