Telescope Reviews: Orion Ranch Observatory

Ok, after about a six month long effort, I finally have the next stage for my observatory completed. I haven't posted anything on this, so this will be one big long summary. As you may recall, I'd shut down my astrophotography at the start of last summer. However, the unbearably hot and dry summer we had made doing any work under full sun pretty impossible. Thus, it wasn't until this fall that I started making any sort of progress on preparing the footings, and that took me right into this last week before I was ready to have the foundation poured.

So I managed to dig holes through the rock for a couple of batter board posts at the start of July, and a couple more a few weeks later. (Note: This pictures are linked to my website. If I re-arrange things at a later date, the embedded images may break, but the link typically still works.

It wasn't until October that I finally got the batter boards in place and leveled so that I could really start!

I used an old fashioned water level to make sure that the lines were good. For something this size, that's more accurate than the cheap laser level I had.

So finally I can string level lines and start the ground work for the foundation.

Digging the first of the footers near the end of October.

I had to chip a bit of one of the pier footings to allow me to run a 4" pipe for cables under the slab and maintain vibration isolation.

Getting the pad under one end leveled out.

And the west footing with various conduits for the piers.

Working some more on the warm room side:

And the east footings.

By mid November I had footings for the observatory proper:

Digging through all that rock, the footings tend to get too wide, so I had to fill back in.

Before completing the warm room footing, I had to trench for the main power cable:

And then fill that back in and finish up the warm room footings.

Driving a ground rod into solid rock doesn't work so well, even with a jack hammer!

So finally by January 8th I've filled in some more areas and cleaned up the site, ready to have a contractor set forms and pour the concrete!

I put about an inch of foam around the base of each pier to isolate them from the slab.

I also had to take down the Orion Ranch sign and trim a few trees to make clearance for the concrete trucks!

At the end of day one, about 3/4 of the forms are up.

By the end of day two, they have the perimeter forms complete and rebar in the beams. I've also tied my pier vapor barrier into theirs.

By the end of day three, they have the rebar finished, and the forms for the step, and I've tied in all my conduits to come up out of the slab. Time to pour!

The first concrete truck arrives!

Pouring all the footings for the upper section first.

Second truck pours the slab (after getting lost).

Oops! The contractor kind of messed up when trying to thin the last of the concrete a bit and left the water on. Now I have a lake of concrete. Guess that's what I get for pouring on Friday the 13th!

Just a bit more on the last truck for the lower slab.

Then it's just a day of troweling the surface and watching concrete cure!

By the end of the day they've already popped the forms and continue to trowel the face.

They come back the next day to underpin the face and clean up a bit. Here's the finished foundation.

Of course there are tons more photos on my webpage now. Enjoy!

Beo