Structure

With the construction of the first observatory, I planned to eventually replace my LX200 with a larger telescope - the goal is 24". With this in mind, I did a preliminary design of a 24" fork mount telescope and have laid out the structure of my observatory to handle such a design. The overall size will be 10' x 13', with a roll off roof. Chris Veleder documented his construction of a 10' x 12' roll off roof observatory during the first quarter of 1999. Chris provided a diagram of his roof roller design that I am using.

I first did a topographic map of the area around the pier. This data was placed into AutoCad® (R13) along with the pier. The structure was then added in 3D. A part of the drawing of the planned structure is shown below. It shows the topo grade, some of the concrete blocks, the 2x4 walls and the roll off roof (also mostly made with 2x4's. The door, wall and roof coverings are not shown for clarity. I would be more than willing to email a copy of this AutoCad file to anyone interested when I am finished. To date it is about 7mb.

My wooden structure siat on a foundation of concrete blocks. The concrete blocks will only be a few inches out of the ground. The concrete blocks sit on a footing of concrete 16" wide and 8" deep. The walls of the structure are 6' 6" high.

As my yard is on a grade, I had to dig about 2' deep on one end for the footings. The digging (by hand - well shovel) took a couple of weekends.

Saturday May 8th, my friend Ben and I poured the footings.

Saturday May 15th the block was next - 50 8" block and 12 12" block were laid with the help of my oldest son and my Father

Saturday May 22, 1999, John was back to raise the walls

Late May -
            Outboard post were placed 30" into the ground and surrounded with concrete
            Inverted angle iron rails mounted
            Rolling section built and placed on walls
            Roof trusses were constructed

Early June -
            Roof trusses were placed on rolling section.
            Sheathing placed on sides and roof
Mid June -
            Shingled roof

Thumbnails of the construction are located on the link on the left- click on any thumbnail to see a larger version

AutoCad drawing of the structure Roof Capture System

Please address general comments to web@dv-fansler.com