MHamburg
professor emeritus
Reged: 06/21/06
Loc: Brooklyn, NY/Berkshires, MA
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Planning an add-on warm room
#5540000 - 11/26/12 09:52 AM
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To all those members who have built a warm room -- I am in the planning stage of adding a warm room to my domed observatory. I would love to begin construction next spring and would welcome any and all do's, don't's, and any other ideas and experiences. Many thanks.
Michael
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csa/montana
Den Mama
Reged: 05/14/05
Loc: montana
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Re: Planning an add-on warm room
[Re: MHamburg]
#5540013 - 11/26/12 10:01 AM
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Sounds like that will be a great addition to your observatory! Looking forward to this thread!
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Mirzam
Post Laureate
Reged: 04/01/08
Loc: Lovettsville, VA
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Re: Planning an add-on warm room
[Re: csa/montana]
#5540090 - 11/26/12 10:58 AM
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Make sure that the warm room structure does not interfere with your dome slit operation. Some Ash domes present this problem.
While it is always nice to have extra room, a large warm room is harder to heat. My warm room is about the size of a treehouse! (I wish it was a bit larger).
JimC
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HunterofPhotons
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 04/26/08
Loc: Rhode Island, USA
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Re: Planning an add-on warm room
[Re: MHamburg]
#5540168 - 11/26/12 11:40 AM
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Hi Michael,
Insulate the heck out of it. You don't want heat plumes from your warm room interfering with your seeing.
Electric heat is nice in this instance. It's safe and easy to install. A 220V unit would be preferable to a 110V unit. A vapor barrier is called for with electric heat.
Put in a viewing window to the domed section.
dan k.
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Lorence
professor emeritus
Reged: 09/15/08
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Re: Planning an add-on warm room
[Re: MHamburg]
#5540426 - 11/26/12 02:34 PM
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Quote:
I would love to begin construction next spring and would welcome any and all do's, don't's, and any other ideas and experiences.Michael
Will you be controlling the equipment from the warm room? If so think about controlling everything from the house. The cost of adding a warm room could cover much of the cost of the extra equipment you may need for complete remote control.
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Uptmor
member
Reged: 02/16/10
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Re: Planning an add-on warm room
[Re: Lorence]
#5541691 - 11/27/12 09:01 AM
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I would highly suggest running more wires than you think you will need. Say 4 USBs, a couple CAT5, and maybe a HDMI. We did this with ours and patted ourselves in the back later. I would really suggest running them all in an oversized conduit in case you need to add something later.
Depending on how far you are away from your house, I would agree with Lorence. You could spend that extra money adding a nice data center from your house to your observatory. But, I do astrophotography and not much visual. If I were doing a bunch of visual, I would go with the warm room. As it stands, I can control everything from the warm room or the house (via ethernet), and I do most from the house unless I just want to get away from everything for a few hours 
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stmguy
super member
Reged: 10/11/12
Loc: Western NH
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Re: Planning an add-on warm room
[Re: Uptmor]
#5541739 - 11/27/12 09:40 AM
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If the run isn't too far I second the idea of running it from the house. You should be able to buy about 100 ft of Fiber Optic cable for around $75 with the ends included and a pulling eye included. Put a converter on each end and you can have a good Gigabit fiber Ethernet connection
Norm
Norm
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johne
sage
Reged: 11/10/06
Loc: Prescott, AZ.
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Re: Planning an add-on warm room
[Re: stmguy]
#5543337 - 11/28/12 07:04 AM
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+1 for controlling it from the house. I resurected an old PC that I had sitting in the basement after upgrading to a newer PC. I have the old PC runing Win7 Pro with a small LCD monitor (usually turned off) and hooked to a UPS for clean/filtered power. I run a single CAT5 ethernet cable from the house out to a hub in the Obs. I have an ethernet access remote power switch bank (with 8 A/C power ports) that I can turn the equipment on/off as needed. (The PC is kept on most of the time.) I have a USB hub and a serial hub on the mount and all connected to the PC in the Obs. The in-house PC connects to the Obs PC via Remoted Desktop Connection. When I'm ready to image, I go out to the Obs., unlock and open the doors, roll it away from the scope, close the doors and head into the house where I control everything from inside. I also have a series of Logitech wireless security cameras to monitor the activity around the Obs.
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Wmacky
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 11/24/07
Loc: Florida
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Re: Planning an add-on warm room
[Re: johne]
#5543446 - 11/28/12 09:15 AM
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I personally like the idea of a warm room. This is supposed to be fun, so I want to be out there monitoring the scope through the observation window, even if I'm just surfing the web or reading an atlas. Now I should state that my soon to be operational warm room will have internet access, an audio system, climate control, a mini fridge, and a astronomical library.
Now if it was at a remote location, thats different.
Edited by Wmacky (11/28/12 02:35 PM)
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MHamburg
professor emeritus
Reged: 06/21/06
Loc: Brooklyn, NY/Berkshires, MA
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Re: Planning an add-on warm room
[Re: Wmacky]
#5543547 - 11/28/12 10:18 AM Attachment (19 downloads)
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Wow! Thank you for all the replies. Although running completely remote from the house might be tempting, I love getting away from my regular environment and its distractions. Trying to get better at AP has removed me enough already from "eyes-on" astronomy that I still want some physical connection to my equipment. In addition, I need to turn my diy dome manually. I can also save a lot of money by building everything myself with the exception of having a licensed electrician run a 30 amp sub-panel to the obs. I intend to make this warm room as cozy as possible since I cannot stand the temperatures of New England winters. Presently, I am entertaining ideas ffor how I can avoid interfering with the rotation of the dome and am open to all suggestions. Once again, thanks to everyone for their interest.
Michael
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Bob Griffiths
Getting Grouchy
Reged: 10/10/05
Loc: Frederick Maryland
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Re: Planning an add-on warm room
[Re: MHamburg]
#5543603 - 11/28/12 10:45 AM
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Well I no longer can tolerate the cold weather here in the mid Atlantic area much less the New England (or Canadian ) weather...
Investing less then $500 bucks to buy heated motorcycle clothing works extremely well for me..I'm very comfortable down way way below freezing.. with just a pair of heated glove liners a jacket liner and heated socks ... Never found a need for heated pants YET !
The glove liners are tight fitting (one size too small) but I can type at the computer without removing them plus they have heating elements between each finger as well as on the back of the hand
Bob G.
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MHamburg
professor emeritus
Reged: 06/21/06
Loc: Brooklyn, NY/Berkshires, MA
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Re: Planning an add-on warm room
[Re: Bob Griffiths]
#5544213 - 11/28/12 04:54 PM
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Bob,
Do you have a link for that heated motorcycle clothing? Thanks.
Michael
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Bob Griffiths
Getting Grouchy
Reged: 10/10/05
Loc: Frederick Maryland
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Re: Planning an add-on warm room
[Re: MHamburg]
#5545084 - 11/29/12 08:25 AM
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Gosh I would assume that most Cycle dealers sell the stuff...
But I purchased mine (locally) thru
www.heatedclothing4you.com
Friendly Old retired guy who works out of his home and has been Gerbrings number one dealer for years... (he sells mostly to police departments)
Bob G
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gonzosc1
super member
Reged: 11/08/12
Loc: South Carolina
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Re: Planning an add-on warm room
[Re: Bob Griffiths]
#5550782 - 12/02/12 06:13 PM
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Quote:
Well I no longer can tolerate the cold weather here in the mid Atlantic area much less the New England (or Canadian ) weather...
Investing less then $500 bucks to buy heated motorcycle clothing works extremely well for me..I'm very comfortable down way way below freezing.. with just a pair of heated glove liners a jacket liner and heated socks ... Never found a need for heated pants YET !
The glove liners are tight fitting (one size too small) but I can type at the computer without removing them plus they have heating elements between each finger as well as on the back of the hand
Bob G.
I was just thinking about this the other day. I'm just now getting set up back into a telescope. but I do ride a bike year round here in SC. I am completely wire while riding with heated pants liner, jacket liner, socks and gloves.
35 degrees would be a walk in the park while standing still, as opposed to 70mph wind chill on top of that 35 degrees that I get on the bike. sometimes I get off the bike sweating under all that gear!
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Starman27
Post Laureate
Reged: 01/29/06
Loc: Illinois, Iowa
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Re: Planning an add-on warm room
[Re: gonzosc1]
#5551785 - 12/03/12 10:32 AM
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When my wife was working in Alaska, she had a Musher suit made for me. It can handle 35 below zero temeratures. Of course, at that temerature not much is working anyway. Unfortunately it is also very large, but I can still move around.
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