Rebuild Of Roof Structure

Its been a long wait. A measurement error made by me on the internal measurements of the observatory meant that the scope when facing south hit the door of the observatory.

Two options available to me were rebuild the structure or the more favourable raise the scope.

Option two was the preferred choice,

I needed to raise the scope by 14" to allow the counterweight arm to miss the door frame.

I did not have any more of the tubing so I upended a bucket and added some concrete to raise by the appropriate amount. cut some more M12 bar to accept the mounting plate.

The more difficult task was to raise the roof. Again I could completely rebuild a new roof or raise the existing. Due to many factors such as work commitments, WEATHER, I opted for the raise.

I had booked a week off work for this week to do the job.

I had asked 3 members of Breckland AS to lend a hand . Very kindly Barrie Sherrington, Mike Butcher and Gerald North, said yes and to them I am grateful for their help and advice on the the day.

In preparation I had build a framework for the roof to rest upon and eagerly awaited their arrival. Luck prevailed and the weather was fine. So we lifted the roof off and removed the wheels lifted and tested the new framework in place (all OK it fitted perfectly) Reattached the wheels and lifted the roof onto its new home.

The next couple of days were dodging rain and cladding and doing.

As the photo's show the roof is taller than originally wanted but it does mean the scopes do not have to be removed after an imaging session.

Mercury Transit

Mercury Transit 7th May 2003

The transit or passage of a planet across the face of the Sun is a relatively rare occurrence. As seen from Earth, only transits of Mercury and Venus are possible. On the average, there are 13 transits of Mercury each century.

On Wednesday, 2003 May 07, We were indeed treated to another transit of a lifetime when Mercury's transit of the Sun was seen for the first time since 1999. The entire event was widely visible from the Europe, Africa and Asia,. Japan Australia, and New Zealand and witnessed the beginning of the transit but the Sun had set before the event ended. Similarly, observers in western Africa, eastern North America and eastern South America saw the end of the event since the transit will already be in progress at sunrise from those regions. But luckily here in the UK we were treated to a cloud free entire transit.

Lightning

Lightning at Saham Toney

Me and my 5 year old daughter love to watch a good thunder storm we sit under the porch and watch the lightning steak across the sky.

Saham Sunset

Saham Toney Sunset.

This is again a favourite image of mine A wonderful sunset Using a canon 300mm zoom Lens on the EOS300d. A 1 second exposure was enough to capture an amazing sky colour.

Vega Spectrum

Vega Spectrum

I love this image. This is the light spectrum of the star Vega. Taken on the societies 20" with a home made Diffraction Grating. (you know what we used Gerald) ha ha!!.

A 5 second exposure using a Canon EOS300d DSLR.

Deep Sky M13

M13 The Great Hercules Globular Cluster.

This Image was Taken through The 10" Orion Optics reflector at principle focus with a Canon EOS300d DSLR. A stack of 6 x 30 Second exposures stacked in Images Plus V2

This as my first attempt a deep sky Imaging.

Comet Holmes

Comet Holmes

Here we have an image of Comet Holmes.
I was testing the camera on the societies 20" reflector. I have not quite achieved perfect focus. But this 20 second image has given a pleasing pic.

Solar

As this is a new site for me I have found a few of the nice images I have taken in the past.

Here are a couple of my Images from the Venus Transit of 8th June 2004.

On this beautifully clear summer morning we experienced a once-in-a-lifetime rare astrological and astronomical event. Approximately every 121 years, the planet Venus moves between the Sun and our line of vision so that Venus passes directly across the face of the Sun. When the Moon passes across the face of the Sun it's called an eclipse. When a planet passes across the Sun's face it's more precisely known as an occultation.

Telescope used was my 10" Orion Optics F4.8 reflector on a Vixen Polaris GP mount.

I used a baader solar filter on the scope and a yellow filter over the camera lens.

I was very pleased with the results.

Lunar

Lunar Eclipse March 3rd 2007

I purchased a Skywatcher Ed80 at Astrofest in the feb of 2007 and its first serious task was the lunar eclipse. This image was taken with the ED80 and a Canon Eos300d. Image was taken at 400 Iso at 4 seconds.

I am very pleased with the colouration on the South Eastern Limb a wonderful copper colour.

Observatory

I like many of my fellow members of Breckland Astronomical Society have a great deal of kit that needs careful setup and aligning, before you can even contemplate taking a picture. Here is where the dilemma begins.

Dilemma 1 ..To find a practical and easy solution to minimise set up procedure.

Dilemma no 2.. I have a small back garden with a garden shed & my daughters Wendy house and we didn't want another shed losing even more space.

The solution was to have something as small as possible just to house the scopes for imaging.
as my observing is generally done at our Society's Great Ellingham observatory I didn't mind and was happy to compromise on a small observatory.
The conclusion as then to build a purpose built roll on roll off roof shed. I have no experience with fibreglass to consider a dome,
so this was the easier option as all the work will be done by myself.

Observatory

The observatory would be small I planned a 5 foot x 3 foot in size just enough
to house the scopes. I first dug a nice deep hole for the pier, and cemented in the corners using concrete blocks. Mixer kindly loaned by and transported by family.

For the pier I used a piece of 10" industrial drainage tube it was buried into
the ground by just over 2 and half feet. I reinforced the hole with re bar.

The pier is completely isolated from the shed so free from vibration, you will soon see I have a custom made platform for the mount which I also use on a Steel pillar that is concrete mounted
at Great Ellingham.

The framework for the observatory was made with treated 3 x 2 clad then with OSB board after being filled with polystyrene then finally shiplap was clad on the the outside.

I designed a roll off roof structure that again I built myself again cladding and felt to complete.