The construction begins

I bought the wood I need for the frame and I cut it to length. Now I have to plane it.

A new Thanksgiving tradition - pouring concrete

The forecast for Thanksgiving day was to have a high near 65, and for those of us wanting to pour concrete near the first of December in Colorado, that seemed like it was too good to pass up.

I called a rental place, and I could get a 24 hour rental on a concrete mixer for $48, and if I picked it up after noon on Wednesday, it wouldn't be due back until Friday morning - another deal that was too good to pass up.  So yesterday I picked up the mixer, bought 14 bags of concrete at Home Depot, and got almost everything ready so I could start first thing in the morning.

I ended up using only 9 bags of concrete, and I have to say that the $48 for the mixer was a really good deal.  It took about an hour for me to pour all the concrete and set the pier base.

Now all I need is the pier (ETA about Christmas) and to build the house to go around it.  That seems like a good project for the 2+ weeks I'll be taking off at Christmas.

Who says Astronomy is a hobby that doesn't require physical exertion?

All ready to do the first batch.

The pier base - level, pointing north and sitting on top of 30 inches of concrete

I think I'm pretty much done digging

The hole is 55" deep, and I've hit a solid layer of clay (or rock).  A half hour of digging got less than an inch of depth today. I'm thinking that 55 is close enough to 60 - this isn't an exact science.

Tools of the Trade. The Fence is 48"

Notice the handles of the post hole digger

A bottomless pit

Groundbreaking

I have been working on the plans for the dogservatory for quite a while.  I have carefully measured everything (at least twice), drawn plans, made spreadsheets.

The base that the telescope will be mounted to is called a pier. In order to have a steady base, I need to pour a cement pad to mount the pier on. The manufacturer recommends that the pier be set on a 18x18x36 inch concrete pad.  That is a pretty big hole to fill with concrete, but it gets even bigger. In order to make everything fit inside the doghouse I will have to have the base of the pier 24 inches below ground.

That means if I decide to follow the manufacturer's recommendation I'm going to be digging a 5 foot deep hole in my back yard.  I have a lead on someone with a skid loader and an auger who will dig the hole for around $200, but I'm going to try to dig it by hand first - something about being cheap and wanting to get some exercise.  Given that I live at the base of the Rocky Mountains, I'm going to hit some rocks.  I'll just have to decide if there are $200 worth of rocks as I go along.

I've borrowed tools from my friends, had the utility companies do locates in my yard, and have actually been ready to start digging for a while.  But other things have happened around the house that have needed my attention, and it is is important to never underestimate my ability to procrastinate when it comes to digging a 5 foot hole.

Winter is coming, and unless I wanted to wait until spring to finish this project, I needed to get started.

So, today I got out the tape measure, my friend's wheelbarrow, and my shovel. It isn't much, but it is a start.

So, what exactly is a dogservaotry?

I have a telescope that I use to take photos of stellar objects, and I'm really tired of setting it up and taking it down. To take photos I have to align it pretty precisely, and it often takes between two and three hours before I decide to set it up and when I take my first picture.  It takes another half hour to take it all down in the morning when I'm done.  I like taking pictures, but currently I'd be better off if my hobby was setting up and taking down telescopes - I seems like I spend more time doing that than taking photos. Because it is takes so long to do, I'm also very picky about the nights I'll set the scope up, which means that I only get out once or twice a month.

Buildings that have telescopes in them are called observatories, no matter how big they are or what shape they are.  If my telescope was in an observatory, I could skip the 3 hours of set up and tear down time, and image on nights that are less perfect than the ones I wait for now.

Between my HOA and my wife, I'm not going to be setting up any domed, Palomar looking building in my back yard anytime soon.  But I really don't really need such a building - I don't actually look through the eyepiece of my telescope, so I don't need to be able to get close to it.

I just need something large enough to hold my telescope that won't attract the attention of the HOA or spouse. My telescope is pretty small, and it would fit comfortably in a building the size of a doghouse.  The doghouse will need to have a removable roof, and the telescope will have to be mounted on something that can be raised and lowered so it will fit inside the roof when it is on, but if I can make those two things happen I will have a house for my telescope.

A dog house observatory. A dogservatory.