Every project has to start somewhere. This one began by digging a DEEP hole, filling the hole with rebar and concrete, and adding a couple of feet of concrete Sonotube above ground.
After leveling the ground, building a frame, laying rebar, and wrapping the pier with foam to separate it from the slab, came pouring concrete. Everything went extremely well for my first slab.
Once the slab had set up, the walls were put up, standard 2×4 construction, you can make out the warm room wall on the right hand side of the building.
The building was wrapped in house wrap, and T1-11 put on over that. T1-11 is not the most durable siding, however it does add some rigidity since the roof won’t be holding the walls together at the top.
View from above showing the rolling Top Plate where the rafters will attach. The Top Plate has V groove rollers every 4 feet which ride on an inverted angle iron ridge.
Rafters, Joists, and ridge board being put up. The roof is built like a standard roof, only connected to a rolling Top Plate instead of directly to the walls.
Same as above, just the other side. This end of the building won’t move with the roof so the siding is cut to just fit under the overhang.
The siding just under the overhang on this end of the roof will slide off when opened. It overhangs the wall by a couple of inches to shed rain.
Time to start building the framework for the roof to roll onto. Standard practice is to use wood 4×4 or 4×6 to build this, I decided to build mine out of 3.5×3.5in square steel tubing welded together, as it is very difficult to prevent a wood framework from warping in the weather. If the framework warps the roof can become hard to move, making this part out of steel should avoid that problem.
Welding up a cross member to the framework.
Mostly completed framework with the roof successfully rolling out onto it. Eventually a rolling gate motor will move the roof, it is pretty heavy to move manually.
Completed view of the exterior. On to the interior.
Added insulation and plywood to the walls.
View from the door looking toward the pier. The floor is interlocking foam gym tiles on the concrete slab. The walls looked pretty boring so constellations are being drawn to liven things up a little.
View from the other side of the pier looking toward the control room and door.
Inside the control room, looking toward the desk area, small and cozy but wanted to leave as much area as possible for telescopes.
Standing at the desk looking toward the door end of the room.
A closer view of the control desk area.
Lighting in the Control Room.
Lighting effects in the Control Room
Video of the Observatory with the roof closed.
Video of the Observatory with the roof open.