Tips on painting - use a white, off white or cream color on the walls. Darker colors absorb more heat from sunlight and you will cook in the summer. Same for the roof - pick white corrugated metal. Tar shingles are heavy and hold heat a long time. Last tip - paint the interior before installing anything. The wood will get wet during the time the roof is open and soak into uncoated surfaces. All this learned while building my own observatory :). Good luck!!
Yeah you could also do radiant paint for the wood before the roof is installed so the roof wood reflects heat away. Though my idea is going with what Astrobackyard did. Quick and easy, and if we move it moves. If I ever build out on land then I'd go ham on a new setup.
Good idea not to use dark colors. Not only you wont cook inside, but more importantly the structure will not radiate heat and make distortion in the air that the telescope will be looking through :)
The reason you may be off a little when lining up your cuts, because when you make a cut, you have to account for the width of the blade itself. That is called the Kerf. Great bulding plan though. I have 60 acres in East Texas where you can see the Milky way, and want to build an observatory.
I've finished a 1.7m tall pier, 1ft high deck, just waiting on my shed to arrive and I'll have my observatory up and running! It is so exciting seeing it come together!
Definately coming along nicely. I can relate to double marking the studs as I do the same. Same frustrastion with the rain during the build. When you get to the roof, consider using 3/4" shims between the wall top-caps and the runners holding the trusses in place. This will let you put all the trusses in place and squared up adding in the rails afterwards. I found that by doing this, once the rails were fit and the rollers screwed in place, the roof actually lifted off the shims. It also let me function the rolling roof before adding the additional weight of the full roof. There was no problem supporting my weight to close up the roof panneling - Food for thought. Would love to see you do a follow-up presentation on how to determine your FOV within the shed when looking to shoot DSO's.
I don’t know if you’ve completed building your roof outriggers yet, but you haven’t, don’t make the tracks level with those of the building. On my observatory I have metal plates and angle iron for the casters to roll on. Because I made my outriggers level, I get water rolling back into the observatory which then drip down the walls. I think a slight downward angle would have prevented that.
most outstanding job, now i have no reason not to build mine seeing you can do it by yourself. Thanks so much for the in-depth information very helpful.
Looks real good. You are so accurate and precise. I have had my observatory for 17 years. After about 6years the roll off rails made of 4x6’s started slowly bending and warping.i had a 14 ft span with a 4x4 in the middle. I eventually switched to steel ibeams and the problem went away. My angle iron which the V groove wheels ride on was welded to the i-beam.
It's looking good. I know what you mean about doing something like this by yourself. It's nice to be able to say 'I built it' rather than 'we built it'. I'll be starting my 2 metre x 2 metre storage shed/observatory in the next few days and using heavy duty drawer slides for a lightweight flat roof.
Such an exciting project, Nico! I doubt I'll ever have the space to build an observatory but I always vicariously enjoy watching people make spaces that work just the way they want :)
looking good lot of progress for this time of year. a trick we found while doing craft show on popup canopies was to bow a pool noodles in the corners to hold the top from sagging similarly a couple of pvc pipes could be bowed against the walls to keep your tarp from sagging in the middle ( also good to use for conduit latter) looking forward to learn more from your build hope to someday get an observatory made for us as we live in one of those good dark spaces (3/4 mile to nearest neighbor and12 to the nearest town) HAVE FUN and happy holidays
Nice job so far, but I am Really surprised you did not put a waterproof breathable membrane around the framing before covering with your exterior boarding, this is a normal thing to do with any exterior type building of this nature and design….🤔🤔
Nope, they are correct for my location, I can only image down to 25-30 degrees above the horizon due to the tree line on my property, so the tree line is my limit not the walls. I’ve now had the chance to test this and all my measurements were correct thankfully.
Use a section of Z flashing along the top edge of the wall when you add the filler panel on, after installing the roll off beams. This will help keep water out of the observatory.
Your building looks nice. SCREWS for constructing the framework. Years ago Habitat for Humanity built 2 houses almost side by side. In one house they used common (not galvanized) nails and in the other they used screws. That's in an area where the wind gets high at times. During a strong wind the house constructed with nails stood, but the one built solely with screws suffered damage because many screws broke because screws were brittee while the nails were more pliable and bent instead of breaking. The house built with nails survived because the nails bent a little in the wind, yet sprang back to their original shape when the wind let up. That was years ago and the screws might not ne as brittle now as they were back in those days. You might already know that galvanized nails are required when building with pressure treated material. The chemicals in pressure treated material attacks and weakens non galvanized nails. I got that galvanized nail information years ago. My understanding is that more recently different chemical(s) are used for pressure treated (insect resistant) wood is different now. I think galvanized nails are still recommended. The only other thing I noticed is: in my location nail spacing for sheathing is much closer than 12 inches. That's because of the wind loading where I'm located. 12 inches might be correct for you. Your lumber supplier should have that information. OR a builder who is required to meet building codes. All the best to you.
You're encouraging me to get started on my observatory. You have really come a long way. Thanks for sharing. I can get an idea now what I am up against. I will be glad to see what it looks like when you're finished. Godspeed!
I'm greatly enjoying your project even if I'll never build one (I live in one of the top light-polluted cities in the world...). It does make me laugh the effect that having so many fine tools and helpers (you do have great choices of equipment!) makes you tend to forget how people have built stuff before CNC and precision machining. Boy! How I laughed at your laser level when -as someone already pointed out- a transparent water-filled tube would have done the job better!😆 Thanks for sharing and I look forward to the rest of the process. Have a happy new year!
Correct, it won't be sealed / temperature controlled - difficult with a roll-off roof. Some people add a warm room that can be temp. controlled, but I didn't do one mostly to cut down on cost/complexity.
This is very impressive work Nico. Sure, you’ve made mistakes (everyone does), you’ve done some stuff that others want to tell you a “better way” but who cares? You’re doing a great job, especially for someone building something like this for the first time. Can’t wait to see the next video, even though it may be some time due to weather. Regardless, keep up the great work you’re doing! Happy Holidays ~ Phil
My favorite part was staying dry in the storm. I hate it when SGP doesn't take my scheduled auto flats so I'm cancelling my subscription and switching to voyager.
With so much wood involved I guess you'll have to deal with wasps and hornets at least twice a week in the warm seasons to get them out as they simply love wood! :-)
I remember when I was building my observatory not that long ago, and every day it kept feeling more real. That was never so strong as when I built the walls.
Tips on painting - use a white, off white or cream color on the walls. Darker colors absorb more heat from sunlight and you will cook in the summer. Same for the roof - pick white corrugated metal. Tar shingles are heavy and hold heat a long time. Last tip - paint the interior before installing anything. The wood will get wet during the time the roof is open and soak into uncoated surfaces. All this learned while building my own observatory :). Good luck!!
This is super helpful! I’m going to keep this in mind for my build.
Yeah you could also do radiant paint for the wood before the roof is installed so the roof wood reflects heat away. Though my idea is going with what Astrobackyard did. Quick and easy, and if we move it moves. If I ever build out on land then I'd go ham on a new setup.
Good idea not to use dark colors. Not only you wont cook inside, but more importantly the structure will not radiate heat and make distortion in the air that the telescope will be looking through :)
Awesome project, its nice to see the progress. And I love your backyard too. Looks so peaceful there.
The reason you may be off a little when lining up your cuts, because when you make a cut, you have to account for the width of the blade itself. That is called the Kerf. Great bulding plan though. I have 60 acres in East Texas where you can see the Milky way, and want to build an observatory.
I give you a lot of credit for staying so patient with this build!!! It’s going to be amazing!!!
The flooding around me in New Hampshire with that heavy rain storm took out some bridges. Glad to see you didn't get washed away
I've finished a 1.7m tall pier, 1ft high deck, just waiting on my shed to arrive and I'll have my observatory up and running! It is so exciting seeing it come together!
Definately coming along nicely. I can relate to double marking the studs as I do the same. Same frustrastion with the rain during the build. When you get to the roof, consider using 3/4" shims between the wall top-caps and the runners holding the trusses in place. This will let you put all the trusses in place and squared up adding in the rails afterwards. I found that by doing this, once the rails were fit and the rollers screwed in place, the roof actually lifted off the shims. It also let me function the rolling roof before adding the additional weight of the full roof. There was no problem supporting my weight to close up the roof panneling - Food for thought. Would love to see you do a follow-up presentation on how to determine your FOV within the shed when looking to shoot DSO's.
For the siding paint the bottom to stop wicking moisture over time. Nice work looks awesome
Only a couple of hours ago wondering where you had gone. Glad to see more content.
Very good to know about observatory, congratulation.
Looking great Nico.. That storm was insane down here on the cape
I like de creative way you work on this, great job
The project looks great! I admire your fortitude doing this yourself.
I don’t know if you’ve completed building your roof outriggers yet, but you haven’t, don’t make the tracks level with those of the building. On my observatory I have metal plates and angle iron for the casters to roll on. Because I made my outriggers level, I get water rolling back into the observatory which then drip down the walls. I think a slight downward angle would have prevented that.
I just looked last night to see if there was an update! So excited for you!
most outstanding job, now i have no reason not to build mine seeing you can do it by yourself. Thanks so much for the in-depth information very helpful.
Your construction process makes me very glad we have dry sunny weather most of the time. Wind was my biggest enemy when I built mine.
Looking great Nico!
Super excited for your first light with the observatory
Looking good! El Nino winter, hopefully you will be dryer than normal.
Came for the astrophotography, stayed for the carpentry.
Looking super, Nico!
This is AMAZING,Nico!!! AWESOME work!!!
Looks real good. You are so accurate and precise. I have had my observatory for 17 years. After about 6years the roll off rails made of 4x6’s started slowly bending and warping.i had a 14 ft span with a 4x4 in the middle. I eventually switched to steel ibeams and the problem went away. My angle iron which the V groove wheels ride on was welded to the i-beam.
I'll be doing this come spring... taking notes from all the videos I'm watching right now...
It's looking good.
I know what you mean about doing something like this by yourself. It's nice to be able to say 'I built it' rather than 'we built it'.
I'll be starting my 2 metre x 2 metre storage shed/observatory in the next few days and using heavy duty drawer slides for a lightweight flat roof.
Great progress. Thanks for sharing and have a Merry Christmas. 🎄🎅🏻❄👍🏻
Love your work! I know that feeling once it all starts coming together, relish it!
So impressed with your videos. Keep it up!
Nico, nice work and it looks to be coming along quickly.
Nice job! I've built two homes for myself. Lumber is a bitch. Crowns, bows, twists, etc. Nice job.
Absolutely love this project, it's coming along quite nicely! Inspiring, to say the least. ♥
Awesome work, Nico! Very much looking forward to more! I plan to start on mine sometime in the coming year.
Great project. Love the wood work. I still wonder how much costs and efforts this is compared to a pre-built dome.
Amazing journey, thank you so much for sharing !
Awesome work, Nico! You’re really starting to fly through progress now!
Great vid as always :)
Looks great, your logical and detailed orientated approach is excellent. Jigs, templates and methodical procedures really pay off.
Such an exciting project, Nico! I doubt I'll ever have the space to build an observatory but I always vicariously enjoy watching people make spaces that work just the way they want :)
Excellent progress!
Love watching the process and the trail and error of this ❤
looking good lot of progress for this time of year. a trick we found while doing craft show on popup canopies was to bow a pool noodles in the corners to hold the top from sagging similarly a couple of pvc pipes could be bowed against the walls to keep your tarp from sagging in the middle ( also good to use for conduit latter) looking forward to learn more from your build hope to someday get an observatory made for us as we live in one of those good dark spaces (3/4 mile to nearest neighbor and12 to the nearest town) HAVE FUN and happy holidays
Those beams outside could be from cider. Critical beams and post could be microlams. They are very weather resistant.
Nice job so far, but I am Really surprised you did not put a waterproof breathable membrane around the framing before covering with your exterior boarding, this is a normal thing to do with any exterior type building of this nature and design….🤔🤔
I’m learning a ton from these videos. Thanks for going into so much detail, especially on the finer points.
Fantastic video, really enjoyed it. Thanks.
i love your videos. i just started my astrophotography journey and i am learning sooooo mutch from you
Great job Nico!
So impressed with your work! Great astrophotographer and builder! Looking forward to seeing you on Astroworld in Jan!
looking goof! getting the urge to go build an addon to mine :) Do I need it, of course not but I like the planning part and then building !!
Looks great but aren't the piers too low compared to the walls?
Nope, they are correct for my location, I can only image down to 25-30 degrees above the horizon due to the tree line on my property, so the tree line is my limit not the walls. I’ve now had the chance to test this and all my measurements were correct thankfully.
@@NebulaPhotos good to hear :)
Use a section of Z flashing along the top edge of the wall when you add the filler panel on, after installing the roll off beams. This will help keep water out of the observatory.
Nico, amazing work, you creating a great observatory, I envy you, awesome observatory! Congrats
Can't wait for the next video :)
Your building looks nice. SCREWS for constructing the framework. Years ago Habitat for Humanity built 2 houses almost side by side. In one house they used common (not galvanized) nails and in the other they used screws. That's in an area where the wind gets high at times. During a strong wind the house constructed with nails stood, but the one built solely with screws suffered damage because many screws broke because screws were brittee while the nails were more pliable and bent instead of breaking. The house built with nails survived because the nails bent a little in the wind, yet sprang back to their original shape when the wind let up.
That was years ago and the screws might not ne as brittle now as they were back in those days.
You might already know that galvanized nails are required when building with pressure treated material. The chemicals in pressure treated material attacks and weakens non galvanized nails. I got that galvanized nail information years ago. My understanding is that more recently different chemical(s) are used for pressure treated (insect resistant) wood is different now. I think galvanized nails are still recommended.
The only other thing I noticed is: in my location nail spacing for sheathing is much closer than 12 inches. That's because of the wind loading where I'm located. 12 inches might be correct for you. Your lumber supplier should have that information. OR a builder who is required to meet building codes.
All the best to you.
Progress ❤ always forward
You're encouraging me to get started on my observatory. You have really come a long way. Thanks for sharing. I can get an idea now what I am up against. I will be glad to see what it looks like when you're finished. Godspeed!
Congratulations to the walls!
Can't wait to see the finished observatory!
I use to live outside of Keene. Yeah, snow shows up when it feels like it. Miss living there.
Looking real nice Nico! Looking forward to the next update. BTW, how’s the analemma project going?
looking good. My only question is where is the door and window headers?
I'm greatly enjoying your project even if I'll never build one (I live in one of the top light-polluted cities in the world...). It does make me laugh the effect that having so many fine tools and helpers (you do have great choices of equipment!) makes you tend to forget how people have built stuff before CNC and precision machining. Boy! How I laughed at your laser level when -as someone already pointed out- a transparent water-filled tube would have done the job better!😆
Thanks for sharing and I look forward to the rest of the process. Have a happy new year!
Nothing like fresh lumbar
My lumbar gets sore from too much lumber
Lookin good!
Why did you decide against putting on a wrap (eg Tyvek) before putting the siding on? Do you not plan on temperature controlling the interior?
Correct, it won't be sealed / temperature controlled - difficult with a roll-off roof. Some people add a warm room that can be temp. controlled, but I didn't do one mostly to cut down on cost/complexity.
If you ever build another observatory, framing lumber is normally fine if it gets rained on, so you don't need to cover it in tarps and stuff.
This is very impressive work Nico. Sure, you’ve made mistakes (everyone does), you’ve done some stuff that others want to tell you a “better way” but who cares? You’re doing a great job, especially for someone building something like this for the first time. Can’t wait to see the next video, even though it may be some time due to weather. Regardless, keep up the great work you’re doing! Happy Holidays ~ Phil
How ya been Nico, haven’t seen you up in a while. Hope all is well .
My favorite part was staying dry in the storm. I hate it when SGP doesn't take my scheduled auto flats so I'm cancelling my subscription and switching to voyager.
To eliminate the floor induced vibrations, the telescope should be on a separate foundation, no?
Yep, I have two independent piers with air gap coming through the floor. Check out the last couple video in this series for details
@@NebulaPhotos fantastic, good job! I didn’t notice the piers under the plastic bags
With so much wood involved I guess you'll have to deal with wasps and hornets at least twice a week in the warm seasons to get them out as they simply love wood!
:-)
I remember when I was building my observatory not that long ago, and every day it kept feeling more real. That was never so strong as when I built the walls.
I wish I knew how roofing squares worked when I built mine. I made my walls too tall and had to cut the tops off of them. Trial and error.
Better than the fisher-price-like observatory than the canadian ytr had at some point and remove it quickly from his backyard bc was very ugly.
Metal framed structure would eliminate any settling and rocking.
Of course, a dome can only hold one scope…
I’m J E A L O U S
Warning guys, “All Star telescopes” out of Canada, will sell you “used” telescopes as new, then they ghost you.
seems elaborate for a cat house but ok