The intent of this page is to document the construction of my observatory.

It is NOT intended to be step-by-step instructions for personal observatory construction.

Be sure to check with local laws and applicable building codes before starting a project like this.

The walls are fastened to the floor using two 3/8" lag bolts per wall section.

November 2006

A 68" tall x 10" diameter pier replaces the existing smaller pier.  Nine inches of the pier is below the observatory floor.  This gives me a 59" tall pier within the observatory.  Coupled with the height of my mount, I should be able to view to within 2 degrees of the horizon.  I requested a flat pier top in which I drilled and tapped three holes in a bolt pattern that matches my mount.

November 2006

The mount is attached to the pier using 3/8" stainless cap screws.

November 2006

At this point, I couldn't resist setting a scope on the mount and see if all my figuring and measuring worked out.  I am happy to report that everything fits as expected.

On to wiring...

November 2006

Initially I fastened all the wires, controls and power cubes to the pier with cable ties.  It did not work well and looked horrible.

For my next idea, I took an unused CD rack, cut the shelves, the top, and the bottom to fit around the pier and used 2" wide Velcro® straps to fasten the rack to the pier. I fastened all of the bulky components to the shelves using Velcro® or cable ties.  I ran the wires through ribbed tubing and ran the tubing through holes in the shelves to the various equipment.  The south side of the pier is shown at right.

A word about the flooring...  It is a conductive mat system.  During the summer I noted a static charge could build between the synthetic decking and the pier.  At times the discharge between me and the equipment would halt an imaging session.  Since the mat has been installed, I have not experienced any static shocks.  I am hopeful the static problem is resolved.

December 2006

This is the west side of the pier.

December 2006

This is the east side of the pier.

December 2006

The rack straps provide a handy place to attach controls.

Now all of the hardware is connected and ready for testing.

December 2006