TheSkySearchers

My wife and I moved from the Bay Area just outside San Francisco to the suburbs of Orlando, FL to retire (well, sort of- doing consulting :-)). While the night sky in CA is much better than at our retirement home, and my wife new it although she has no interest in astronomy, we struck a deal. I exchanged better skies for a permanent observatory. I have no desire to travel to dark skies so I just built the best home observatory I could afford. Basically, I had a main section of the roof torn off of our 4 car garage and built the observatory on top with a split, slide off roof. It was rough going as I could not find a builder or architect to help for the longest time. Seems that nobody wanted to risk doing something they had never done before. I thought that was odd, thinking they would like the challenge. Anyway, I finally got that resolved and got the permits approved and we were off and running. There were lots of challenges and I made some mistakes I would change if starting over but overall, I cannot complain as I am fortune enough to be able to afford a nice setup for me. Basically, the cement pier starts 4 ft under ground and runs up to about 15 ft above street level, where an adjustable steel pier is placed that raises the scope another 5 ft or so to clear most trees and street lights. I placed an AP1100 mount on it and my C11" EdgeHD with an 80mm APO triplet piggy based onto it. Both scopes have autofocuses (one of the many challenges with a scope way up high). All power (USB powered hub and a Lynx Power Panel) and cables are managed at the scope level except for 2 cables: 1 main power cable that runs up to the AP mount CP4 control box and 1 USB cable from the powered Hub on top of the C11". So no issues with cable snags. There is also a split AC unit and dehumidifier to control the environment and some relaxing furniture along with a TV monitor to do live viewing when friends come over (but not now, of course).

It was an adventure getting it done and climbing up on a safety ladder to do some rare maintenance isn't fun but overall it worked out. Attached are a few pics.

Awesome!

How did you engineer the slide-off roof? I'm always interested in the technical details of peoples' observatories even though my HOA allows basically nothing.

pakarinen wrote: ↑Sun Jun 07, 2020 2:51 pm How did you engineer the slide-off roof? I'm always interested in the technical details of peoples' observatories even though my HOA allows basically nothing.

Well- I cheated on the roof. I had it custom made by Pier Tech. It arrived on a flat bed truck but in a hundred parts. We carried it up to the roof piece by piece to assemble it. It weights over 700 lbs and we also put hurricane straps on it by law in Florida since we do get hurricane season, which is right now. Interesting you mentioned HOA. This was part of the project. When we decided to move to the Orlando area, we specifically looked for a neighborhood that did not have a HOA- which is not easy here. Believe me- I use to be a HOA president many years ago where I was born and raised in Philadelphia. So I knew to avoid that headache. However, some HOAs may accept the slide off roof vs. a dome. Besides, slide off roofs have much less maintenance issues than domes.

Quite the setup! Congrats!! I must say I'm a bit envious :smile:

Dave

That is one sharp looking observatory! I especially like the streamlined look of the roof.

Hi Bruce. This is very nice work on your home observatory. Thanks for your excellent post, informational data, and the fine pictures too Bruce.

Great Home Observatory Bruce. And a fine looking rig. I just had a look at your Astrobin. That C11 has produced some excellent work.

Looks like retirement is going to be ok!

Regards

Graeme

Very tasty, yuou wouldn't think there is an observatory there from the outside.

Quite impressive Bruce, well done!

Did you lose parking for one car? Or, is the garage large enough that you made the stairway without sacrificing car space?
I am considering such a plan, but I hesitate to lose parking.

Very impressive. Curious as to how long it takes for such a large space to dissipate the heat before you can start imaging? I'm sure having an opening the size of a garage door really helps it to cool to ambient fairly quickly.

A very nice setup,
JT

This is really amazing Bruce! Something that we all dream about.

It is really good to see an awesome project like this. Super job!

Thanks for sharing this!

WOW ! ... I'm having a case of Deja vu. When I first looked at your beautiful observatory, I thought it was my garage-top ROR observatory.

I built mine almost 20 years and and it houses a 12" LX200 scope on top of a 13" chimney block pier. It's been a real imaging workhorse all those years. I'm a retired commercial/residential building contractor so I was able to draw up my own plans/designs. I live in a semi-rural area so working with the building department ... actually one part-time guy as the sole building inspector ... was a piece of cake!

Great job on your observatory ... I'm sure you'll get many years of imaging enjoyment with your setup ... Good Luck!
OrbiJet Observatory:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/27684115@ ... 177074161/

Kingofthehill wrote: ↑Mon Jun 08, 2020 12:24 am Did you lose parking for one car? Or, is the garage large enough that you made the stairway without sacrificing car space?
I am considering such a plan, but I hesitate to lose parking.

No parking space lost at all. Just a chunk of the roof removed and a second floor added. The total usable space is around 240 sq. feet.

Sky wrote: ↑Mon Jun 08, 2020 2:57 am WOW ! ... I'm having a case of Deja vu. When I first looked at your beautiful observatory, I thought it was my garage-top ROR observatory.

I built mine almost 20 years and and it houses a 12" LX200 scope on top of a 13" chimney block pier. It's been a real imaging workhorse all those years. I'm a retired commercial/residential building contractor so I was able to draw up my own plans/designs. I live in a semi-rural area so working with the building department ... actually one part-time guy as the sole building inspector ... was a piece of cake!

Great job on your observatory ... I'm sure you'll get many years of imaging enjoyment with your setup ... Good Luck!



OrbiJet Observatory:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/27684115@ ... 177074161/

Your observatory is beautiful!!!!

I wish I had your skill and knowledge. My biggest mistake was not being able to have it wider to build a walking platform around it. That way, I would not need the safety ladder to adjust things. I had to use a portable scaffolding setup to put the C11" scope on. Fortunately, I am strong enough to have done that but a walking platform would make things so much easier. I can probably do that but only partially around.

Great obsy Bruce. I am in the SF Bay Area and also starting to look for a second home under dark skies somewhere in the West. I have been toying with building some kind of obsy but the problem at home is the tree cover, meaning I have to move my scopes around the various decks and lawn that surrounds my house as the earth's rotation causes the stars and constellations to wheel in and out of view. Probably will wait until I purchase the second home.

helicon wrote: ↑Mon Jun 08, 2020 2:06 pm Great obsy Bruce. I am in the SF Bay Area and also starting to look for a second home under dark skies somewhere in the West. I have been toying with building some kind of obsy but the problem at home is the tree cover, meaning I have to move my scopes around the various decks and lawn that surrounds my house as the earth's rotation causes the stars and constellations to wheel in and out of view. Probably will wait until I purchase the second home.

Thanks, Michael. That is where I lived for 8 years before moving to Florida. Too expensive for retirement. I also had issues with trees and having to use my scope on a deck which would vibrate upon any movement and messing up my images.