Telescope Reviews: Orion Ranch Observatory

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Equipment Discussions >> Observatories

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Lord Beowulf
Pooh-Bah

Reged: 10/13/08

Loc: Cedar Park, TX

Re: Orion Ranch Observatory new

[Re: Lord Beowulf]
#3444892 - 11/12/09 10:43 PM Attachment (131 downloads)

Another long day. Here's the rebar for the pier.

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Lord Beowulf
Pooh-Bah

Reged: 10/13/08

Loc: Cedar Park, TX

Re: Orion Ranch Observatory new

[Re: Lord Beowulf]
#3444897 - 11/12/09 10:47 PM Attachment (131 downloads)

As promised, here's a shot of the outside of the pier tube where you can see one of the three outlet boxes.

Beo

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Lord Beowulf
Pooh-Bah

Reged: 10/13/08

Loc: Cedar Park, TX

Re: Orion Ranch Observatory new

[Re: Lord Beowulf]
#3444904 - 11/12/09 10:51 PM Attachment (131 downloads)

Here's the pier plate with the anchor bolts installed and wrapped to protect it from the concrete.

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Lord Beowulf
Pooh-Bah

Reged: 10/13/08

Loc: Cedar Park, TX

Re: Orion Ranch Observatory new

[Re: Lord Beowulf]
#3444908 - 11/12/09 10:52 PM Attachment (136 downloads)

Mixing the last batch of concrete as the sun sets!

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Lord Beowulf
Pooh-Bah

Reged: 10/13/08

Loc: Cedar Park, TX

Re: Orion Ranch Observatory new

[Re: Lord Beowulf]
#3444912 - 11/12/09 10:55 PM Attachment (126 downloads)

Finishing up in the dark.

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Lord Beowulf
Pooh-Bah

Reged: 10/13/08

Loc: Cedar Park, TX

Re: Orion Ranch Observatory new

[Re: Lord Beowulf]
#3444914 - 11/12/09 10:58 PM Attachment (144 downloads)

And in case anyone every tries to take this thing out!

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Lord Beowulf
Pooh-Bah

Reged: 10/13/08

Loc: Cedar Park, TX

Re: Orion Ranch Observatory new

[Re: Lord Beowulf]
#3444916 - 11/12/09 10:59 PM Attachment (120 downloads)

And the date (would have put the time if there was room!)

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David Pavlich
Transmographied

Reged: 05/18/05

Loc: Mandeville, LA USA

Re: Orion Ranch Observatory new

[Re: Lord Beowulf]
#3445331 - 11/13/09 08:57 AM

I don't know, Beo...looks a bit flimsy to me.

I can't imagine a whole lot of vibration from it.

David

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HunterofPhotons
scholastic sledgehammer

Reged: 04/26/08

Loc: Rhode Island, USA

Re: Orion Ranch Observatory new

[Re: Lord Beowulf]
#3445806 - 11/13/09 01:12 PM

Quote:

Here's the pier plate with the anchor bolts installed and wrapped to protect it from the concrete.

Did you forget to insert the pier plate into the wet concrete?

dan

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quantumac
scholastic sledgehammer

Reged: 12/17/07

Re: Orion Ranch Observatory new

[Re: HunterofPhotons]
#3445872 - 11/13/09 01:46 PM

Looks like your pier has about the same amount of concrete in it as mine. My pier hasn't budged in 15 years. At the time, my step-dad thought it was overkill, but I figured concrete is cheap and you can't have too much stability.

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Lord Beowulf
Pooh-Bah

Reged: 10/13/08

Loc: Cedar Park, TX

Re: Orion Ranch Observatory new

[Re: HunterofPhotons]
#3446596 - 11/13/09 06:57 PM

Quote:

Quote:

Here's the pier plate with the anchor bolts installed and wrapped to protect it from the concrete.

Did you forget to insert the pier plate into the wet concrete?

dan

Dan, no, it's there. If you look at the column with the level sitting on top, that's sitting on the pier plate. The concrete stops just below the hole you can see poked in the side of the tube. I did that so I could see how well the concrete had leveled after insertion of the anchor bolts. Beyond that, the idea of using the tube to make sure the plate was aligned really came from the docs on Dan's Pier Plates site. It wasn't perfect because my tube is about 12.5" in diameter, but it was good enough.

Beo

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csa/montana
Den Mama

Reged: 05/14/05

Loc: montana

Re: Orion Ranch Observatory new

[Re: Lord Beowulf]
#3447528 - 11/14/09 10:46 AM

Now, you're ready to go!

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Lord Beowulf
Pooh-Bah

Reged: 10/13/08

Loc: Cedar Park, TX

Re: Orion Ranch Observatory new

[Re: csa/montana]
#3450423 - 11/15/09 11:55 PM Attachment (145 downloads)

Here's the pier with the pier plate exposed and a temporary pad around it. Now just to get some clear skies to try it out! At least I'm avoiding the temptation to put something on it and giving it time to cure instead.

Beo

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hm insulators
Post Laureate

Reged: 01/22/07

Re: Orion Ranch Observatory new

[Re: Lord Beowulf]
#3451296 - 11/16/09 01:04 PM

Quote:

And in case anyone every tries to take this thing out!

In this day and age, people will take anything that's not nailed down, and even things that are!

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Lord Beowulf
Pooh-Bah

Reged: 10/13/08

Loc: Cedar Park, TX

Re: Orion Ranch Observatory new

[Re: hm insulators]
#3452802 - 11/17/09 08:56 AM Attachment (129 downloads)

Well, the skies cleared last night so we had to give the pillar a shot at first light. The real goal was to watch for the Leonids, but we chickened out before it was late enough to see any. At any rate, the 11" looks great up on that pier!

Beo

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Lord Beowulf
Pooh-Bah

Reged: 10/13/08

Loc: Cedar Park, TX

Re: Orion Ranch Observatory new

[Re: Lord Beowulf]
#3453837 - 11/17/09 06:54 PM Attachment (151 downloads)

Wow, we caught one! On going through my wide-field shots of Orion rising over Orion Ranch I actually found one meteorite trail amongst all the airplane trails through the pictures. Check out the lower left corner of this shot.

Beo

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Lord Beowulf
Pooh-Bah

Reged: 10/13/08

Loc: Cedar Park, TX

Re: Orion Ranch Observatory new