Shadow of the Mountain Observatory

Shadow of the Mountain Observatory - The Build

June 17-19, 2011: Trim & Paint

6/17/11: Last time I was so utterly exhausted when I finished that I had no energy to get the site cleaned up. I had cutoff scraps everywhere and left a mess of trash in the observatory. So first goal was to get the place cleaned up and that took me most of Friday night.

6/18/11: I started first thing Saturday morning removing the trim I had put on last time. The first task was to get all the trim pieces painted which you can see here in the foreground. Next task was to finish nailing the siding on. I had initially nailed only around the edges, so there were quite a few more nails needed. With that out of the way, I am ready to start painting the siding. Unfortunately, I only got one wall painted before thunder showers rolled in. I lost about 4 hours due to rain, but the sun did come back out and I managed to finish painting the siding before it got dark. Here you can see the roof in its fully rolled off position. It's a bit much to do by myself, so I will definitely be adding a winch.

6/18/11: While waiting for the rain to subside and the walls to dry, I took the opportunity to put the mount and scope up on the pier. In the normal "counter weight down" position the roof will hit the scope. However, if I rotate the mount around the right ascension axis such that the counterweight shaft is parallel with the floor I have about a foot of clearance. Sunday morning it was raining like the days of Noah, so I took the opportunity to measure the horizon restricted by the walls and was pleasantly surprised. My design goal was to insure no more than 30 degrees of horizon would be blocked by the observatory. The north and south wall measured at about 23 degrees and east and west at about 12 degrees. The corners are blocking only about 10 degrees. My true horizon will be less than this due to tall trees and mountains, but I did not get the opportunity to measure these due to even more rain...

6/19/11: I was awoken early Sunday morning with a nice long hard thunderstorm and was beginning to think I would need an ark to get out of there, but eventually the rain did subside and I took the opportunity to get a few pieces of trim work back on. The facia boards and gantry will also get painted beige to match the trim, but that will have to wait for another time. I started hearing more thunder in the distance, so it was time to pack up and head out.

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Shadow of the Mountain Observatory - The Build

June 17-19, 2011: Trim & Paint

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