Non-Gardener builds an Observatory, Garden Railway and even Dabbles with Plants!

31st May 2022

The holes for the piers were finally cut. The deep sky pier fell completely within one floor panel. This is the left rear panel.



The other pier was across the joint between four panels. I also cut two small square inspection hatches in the floor at the front, so that in the future, I can spray weed killer under the floor should anything start growing under there. One larger hole was cut in the rear centre floor for access below. The picture below shows the right end floor panels.

 

1st June 2022

It was June already! The year was ticking away rather quickly. We started the day by back-filling the vegetable area, using the spoil from the observatory foundations. Eventually we got it fairly level and then covered the area in weed membrane. After the raised bed planters were in place, the weed membrane would be covered in slate.



Late in the day, had a final test fit of the observatory floor to check the floor clearance around the piers. It appeared that some of the floor panels weren't 100% square and may need some trimming or packing at the joints. It was great to finally see a floor and be working above ground level.

 

2nd June 2022

On the 2nd, we were back to general garden maintenance again. Yes, it's those Laurels, which had sprouted quite a bit through April and May.



Later in the day, I painted the top of the floor in its first coat of varnish. Being water based, it soaked in and dried fairly quickly.



Once dry, the panels were turned around and I gave them the first coat of bitumen on the underside. Over the next few days, both sides were given additional coats. I particularly wanted the top waterproofed, as I didn't know how long it would be outdoors before the roof was fitted. Thankfully, it had been a fairly dry Spring so far.

 

8th June 2022

Following the painting of the floor, I began working on the front of the observatory. All three panels were cut down to the new height and were screwed together. A 12 feet long 2x2inch timber was screwed and glued along the top edge.



I also began to paint the end panels. Despite having a fairly big workshop, I was running out of space to work. The sides and front were now quite large sections, but I still had the rear wall and roof pieces stacked up at one end of the room. This end was painted in the workshop, while the other was painted in the corridor.

 

9th June 2022

The tree stump removal guy came that morning and ground out six stumps, including the remains of the big tree just behind the observatory. While he was busy, a friend turned up in his World War 2 truck. He's been having trouble with the carb mixture for the last year and this morning was its first run out, seemingly sorted. We chatted for quite a while so I didn't get back to painting until after lunch.



I got rather depressed on that evening. During the day, Durham council had been fitting new LED street lights. There's one immediately in front of the house which illuminated the whole front of the property like a high security prison. However, it was the one a little further down the road that was the real problem. That illuminated the whole side of the house and the back garden in a blindingly bright white light - just perfect for stargazing! This is the view from the bottom of the patio.

 

Standing on the patio, looking back down the garden, you can see how bright it is and how strong the shadows are, all the way down the garden.



Even inside the house, with the curtains open, the light was harsh. I went to bed that evening completely depressed, wondering if I'd wasted thousands of pounds on astronomy equipment, the groundworks and shed, that was now going to be useless.

 

The next few days was spent filling nail holes and painting, plus contacting the council about the two lights.

13th June 2022

I ordered the aluminium angle roof runners. I spent quite a bit of time moving stuff around too! With that done, the three remaining wall panels were laid out one by one and cut down to the final rear wall height.

The end that was still in the workshop was then laid flat on the floor and the two off-cuts clamped back together along side the end. The roof wheels were balanced on small blocks in the approximate positions and the roof lower rail laid on top. I took the NEQ6 mount back out to the pier and did some more measuring from floor height to pier and to the top of the mount in the stowed position.

These measurements were then drawn onto the end panel. I needed to have a more accurate idea of the scope/mount height for the roof clearance. So the front wall of the roof will be around 16 inches tall, with around half of that an opening flap to allow the roof to roll over the telescopes as it opens.



14th June 2022

That morning, I got an update from Durham Council. After my initial online request that the lights were too bright, the light immediately outside the front of the house has had a small shield fitted. This has made a difference to the front garden and those rooms directly opposite. However, nothing was done about the main offending light. I reported the issue again and a little while later, I got an email from a real person, saying the Operative Team would fit shields.

After the lower rail was trimmed to fit and screwed in place, the upper roof line was marked out and cut with the circular saw, slightly over size. Here's how it looks on the end wall. There's another two inches of height on top of this, from the thickness of the roof panels. It was getting late by the time I'd trimmed and screwed the upper rail into the roof panel, so to finish off, I mixed up some filler and filled all the knot and nail holes. There were a few shakes ( splits ) along the grain on a couple of planks, so I ran some slightly dilute waterproof PVA glue into the cracks.

 

15th June 2022

I started by planning the top edge of the opening side. Where there were knots, I used my powerfile until it died. The rest of the day was spent shopping for a replacement, collecting my roof runners, unpacking and filling knot and nail holes.

16th June 2022

At 09:35 this morning, a Durham Council van pulled up next to my offending street light. I'd requested a front and side shield due to the location of the lamp in relation to the house and garden, but there is a gap between the two, which still let some light through in the direction of the observatory.

For the rest of the day, I decided to get the roof panels out and give them a coat of bitumen. The roof will have felt on it, but a coat of waterproofing bitumen on the wood was a good secondary defence, especially as I don't know how quickly I will be able to get the felt on after the walls and roof are assembled.

22nd June 2022

With the smaller bits out of the way, the long rear wall was cut for the top rail and joined together, then I started to get a cold bring the work to a halt. I took a covid test, but it was just one of those old fashioned sneezy, runny nose colds!!



The council engineer was back out and turned the small shield around, closing up the gap between it and the front shield. It looked better and there has been another marginal improvement, but the piercing white light is still insufficiently shielded to block it completely.

I saw the engineer while he was working and went to chat with him. He told me the light design prevented it from being angled down further. That turned out to be untrue. Depressingly for astronomers and nature lovers, when I was chatting to him, he said I was unusual and that most people were complaining that LEDs weren't bright enough!!

29th June 2022

Following another email to the very helpful lady at the council, the lighting engineer came back out and adjusted the offending lamp head to horizontal ( despite telling me he couldn't seven days earlier ). It appears that the light array is now totally hidden behind the shields. While the overall light level in the garden hasn't changed that much with the last change, the LED glare has once again been reduced by the tilt change. Thank you Durham Council, you've been most helpful.



The following pictures show the light and garden from the first day of the problem to the conclusion. It's a shame they don't angle all the lights down all the way down the road. The street lights are illuminating the farm field for tens of metres on the opposite side of the road and I'm fairly sure nature doesn't appreciate them either.

 

1st & 2nd July 2022

The nail hole filler on the rear wall was sanded and it was then given two coats of paint. The next day, the roof end walls were given their first coat of paint.

The observatory plinth area was then vacuumed of all the tree stump chippings and the floor panels brought out for fitting. As the panels weren't quite square as delivered, they took some faffing, cutting and adjusting to get the edges straight and the same length.



By the end of the day, all the panels were in place and the freshly cut edges painted in bitumen paint. A second coat of bitumen was added the following day before the rain came.



After that, I began to assemble the roof rear wall, made from sections of the remaining walls. Work continued on this the following day in addition to painting the roof end walls a second coat. When the rear wall was dry, all the screw and nail holes were filled.

 

You have been busy

 

I can imagine how you felt when the street lights went up. There's nothing worse than light pollution, but in the middle of building an observatory it must have been your worst nightmare. I don't understand why the council felt the need to put them up at all.

I'm enjoying your thread and looking forward to it's continuation.

 

We had the old orange lights ( which could be filtered out ). I'm guessing the change was to reduce running costs. The choice of colour temperature of the LED is very poor and several studies have shown warmer and even red still provides enough road illumination, without ruining night vision for drivers and also doesn't disturb animals and nature.

 

6th & 7th July 2022

Needing workshop space, the four main walls would need to be assembled outside on the observatory base. As the inside of the roof on the old observatory went mouldy due to damp, I painted the inside of the new observatory walls with shed paint to protect them. I had some brown paint left over, so the inside walls were given two coats.



11th July 2022

With Lynne working from home for the day, she was available to help carry out and to hold the wall panels while they were assembled. I began with the shed end and rear wall, which were clamped together before being screwed.

 

The other end came next before looking to the front wall. When I tried fitting that, I realised that the right edge wasn't 90 degrees to the floor, causing the end to lean out when pulled together. I needed to make a thin wedge, around four feet long and one quarter inch thick, tapering to nothing. This brought the walls back to square.



It was a really hot day, with 35 degrees in direct sun and 30 in the shade. I was melting and drinking gallons! With the walls up, it gave me a better feel for the floor space.

 

Now the walls were up, it also gave me a good look at how much sky I could actually see from the new observatory. Here's the view looking roughly South South East. There's a pretty good mostly unobstructed view. Before moving, my old observatory was to the North of my house. This meant the house blocked the sky up to 25 degrees above the horizon.



The view North North West was also good, despite the trees opposite the observatory.