Non est ad astra mollis e terris via (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)

This is the story of my observatory project from early 2007 (started January 1st 2007, observatory operational April 6th, finished ... not quite yet). For assorted day-to-day prolixity (and many more pictures) read my observatory diary (which has now split into part two). And there are also my design thoughts (or lack of them - needs updating). Regrets? I've got a few (but then again, almost too few to mention).

From this...	...to this

Jan 2007: Stage one - groundwork

First up was the groundwork. This is 'cheap and easy' in as much as all you require is a shovel and there isn't much to think about, just dig ... and dig ... and dig. The best (or least bad) site for an observatory in the garden also happened to be under a large pile of dead plants - and, as if there wasn't already enough digging to do, there was also a large pile of earth left by a previous resident and the root system of a large clump of something that once occupied the space.

The pictures don't really show how hard a job this was. In total the pile of vegetation took four trips to the tip to clear, and then I had to shift the earth; that took 40 bags (approx. 50-60 pounds each) and 15 barrow-loads (approx. 100 pounds each), in total about 3500 pounds (or 1 1/3 cubic yards).

Jan 2007: Stage two - the pier and base

Once the hole was dug, it was time to fill it in again. I dug a 3' deep, 3' x 2.5' hole for the foundation for the pier. The original plan was for 2' x 2', but removing the root system of the something created a bigger hole than that. About 12" down the soil turns to hard clay, and the bottom of the hole was very solid indeed. That was filled with a layer of coarse gravel, and six 3' lengths of half-inch stainless bar were driven into the base to serve as anchor points. The hole was then shuttered with 6"x1" timber, the shuttering was leveled, and then the hole was filled with concrete. All in all not too difficult, but hard work.

After the pier had cured for a few days, it was time for the rest of the base. That was shuttered using 8' lengths of 6"x1" timber and levelled. The pier foundation was isolated (so the foundation and base would not be in direct contact, so vibration from walking is not transmitted to the telescope) and then the concrete was mixed and poured.

The pier foundation and observatory base add up to 2650kg of concrete (5840 pounds!). It should hopefully be very stable...

Once the concrete cured, I setup the pier, aligned with north and then drilled out holes to bolt it to the concrete. That probably loses a little in terms of stability - although, hopefully, not enough to notice - but it was a lot less likely to go wrong than attempting to 'polar align' four bolts in wet concrete. Drilling was hard work though, so if I was doing it all again I'd probably rethink this. My first regret, although not a very serious one.

March/April 2007: Stage three - the observatory.

A combination of awful weather and the arrival of baby Matthew meant that nothing much got done in February and early March, but by mid-March it was time to get back on the horse. I spent some time um'ing and ah'ing about the SkyShed POD but ultimately decided that it wasn't ideal for me. The alternative was a roll-off shed, and I initially thought of following Michael Morris' write up of the conversion of a simple metal shed. However, the hectic life of February and the demands of a newborn baby made it obvious that this would be a very slow process.

Then, in late February, I came across UK Observatories who will build, deliver and install a roll-off observatory using SkyShed plans. It's more expensive than building it myself, although - considering the tools and time it would take me to build from scratch - not as much more than it initially seemed. After some research online I was convinced, and the cheque was sent for an 8'x6' roll-off.

Although the observatory was built for me, there was still plenty to do to get ready. The main one was turning my octagonal base into a square (my second regret - I really should have decided what I was going to build before building the base).

Apart from that there was some more clearing to do, and running power and data through the pipes I had run through the concrete. And then I discovered my next problem - I couldn't get the cables through the pipes. Regret three - run the cables through before pouring concrete, not afterwards. Fortunately the layout of the observatory means that it's not going to be too much of a problem to relay cabling, but this was a silly mistake.

And then, it was done, and time for UK Observatories to do their stuff...

Pictures don't do it justice. First off, it's solid, very solid. Despite looking like a shed, it's all made of thick, quality timber and looks like it can stand up to anything the weather can throw at it. Stewart and Karl did a great job of putting it up, and the roll off roof is a one-finger operation. Going the professional route was worth every penny, I would never have been able to build something this well myself.

Things aren't quite complete yet and there are a number of jobs to do, but having the G11 setup with a computer to hand makes me look at Astronomy very differently; it's 30 seconds effort from opening the door to observing. People say that an observatory is the best value for money in Astronomy: they're right.