Telescope Reviews: Orion Ranch Observatory

Hi guys! After several months of digging and chipping through tons of Texas limestone, I have the power out to my observatory. Below's a summary of the process, although there are more details on my website. Just click on a picture for more detail.

So the first thing I had to do was replace this disastrous corroded and burnt up little breaker box with something having some room for expansion and a better current rating. This was at the end of January after completing the observatory slab...

And this one will do! I'll never fill it up, but it gives me a 200 amp main.

Hanging the new higher current drop. I didn't plan to do this when I started the day, but after talking to the guys from the power company, it made sense to do it all at once so I didn't have to expand later.

Finished up after a good day's work.

First day of trenching from the observatory site towards the power pole. A friend and co-worker is enjoying his lifelong dream of running a backhoe! Note the jackhammer in front of the backhoe. No chance of just digging through this rock!

After another day of hard work.

And where we're headed...

Another day, a week later, getting through the area between the fence and well house.

After the next weekend, the trenches are connected and extended a bit.

The interesting thing about all this digging was the difference in soil types we dug through. While most is Texas limestone/caliche with some black topsoil, there's also sandstone/sandy soil.

The depth of topsoil and easily diggable (with a backhoe) soil varied from ~0.5 to over four feet. There was even an area with a fissure full of topsoil to full depth. In other areas, there were big boulders in deep topsoil that had to be chipped through.

On the next weekend, I dug up to the driveway where I stopped until I had time to get all the way across and done burying the power lines in one shot.

Before that, I also have to get the trench over to the animal stalls/"barn" where I need to route power and water. Here's where I was at the next weekend.