Lizard Hollow Observatory
Construction Journal
February 15-29, 2000:
February 15, 2000 - The View from Above: Nothing much done today, just finishing up the waterproofing. But the view from above what will be the rooftop is exhilarating! Just spent some time enjoying the view of the Tucson Mountains to the West, Picture Rocks to the North, and the vast, blue sky above. I began to regain my sense that this project, and what I hope will be the years ahead, is an exciting adventure, and my eagerness to proceed returned with the progress of the sun across the sky.
February 16, 2000 -
"Velociflapdoors!" : Two other major milestones were
made today. The first was the construction of what Ben has christened,
the "Velociflapdoor". This is a door that Ted and I have been
referring as the "flap door": it is the small door in the South roof wall
that is hinged to the top sill plate so that it opens into the
Observatory. Its purpose is to provide an opening in the roof wall so
that it will not run into the telescope and to gain access to the lower Southern sky.
Ben, who has a charming penchant for terrible puns - the best kind
- christened the flap door after the fast, man-eating creatures in the film,
"Jurassic Park". The second milestone, which was
completed totally pun-free as nearly as I can recall, was the installation of the
corbels under the triangular roof-support eaves.
After the corbels were in place, we could see that additional stiffening would be
needed under the eaves to completely flatten the triangles. We decided
on installing 10-foot long 2x4 studs, running completely under both eaves on the North and
South sides of the roof.
Tomorrow, if the weather holds, we are all set to begin installing the metal
sheet metal on the roof! We have been extraordinarily lucky with the
weather on this project, but tomorrow is expected to be windy. If
the wind speed is much above 10 mph, we may be unable to work with the sheet metal.
February 17, 2000 - Wind:
A Cautionary Tale: By 8:30 am, the winds were blowing at a
minimum 15 mph but with frequent gusts to about 30 mph. Installation of
the roof sheet metal had to be postponed. But we learned something
rather surprising, which I present as a kind of Cautionary Tale...
The wind revealed a major lack in the design of the roof: ways to stop the roof from
moving from one end of the rails to the other in a good wind and to prevent the roof from
aerodynamically lifting up off the rails and sailing merrily to Yuma.
We realized early in the design process that this problem would exist and have to be
addressed. Somehow, our realization stopped there.
So - back to the drawing board...
Meanwhile, we got 10-foot lengths of 2x4 which will be the support beams under the
eaves, and Ted cut quarter-rounds off each end to provide another touch of Japanese
design to the building's architecture. A coat of primer and a coat of
enamel were applied to them. These beams will fit in nicely with the corbels
and square-metal tubing of the rail end support posts and give another pleasing
architectural element to the visual appeal of the building. For those
friends familiar with their work, the look is reminiscent of California designers
Green and Green, who were one of the major designers in the California Craftsman
movement of the early Twentieth Century.
February 18, 2000 - A Trenchant Situation: I applied enamel to the underside of the eave support beams, but they were not dry enough by noon to install without being easily marred. I decided to not waste another day and turn our attention to getting the electrical trench dug. A fruitful and lengthy discussion with Ben allayed many of my concerns about this stage of the project, after which Ben began digging the trench. After Ted and I returned from ordering the sheet metal for the roof sides, I turned a hand at helping Ben with the trench. By the end of a long day, marred by a heated argument with Ben over the design for the roof hold-downs, we had dug the trench about 30-feet out of the 50-feet needed length. We parted on friendly terms, both looking forward to getting the roof and siding on.
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Here is Ben, our Intrepid Builder and Carpenter par Excellence, taking a break from digging the electrical trench and mugging for cameraman Ted. Of perhaps less interest is the view of the roof's stiffening triangles at each corner supported by Ted's corbels. This shot also offers a good view of the rail support posts and the wire cross-cables. |
February 20, 2000 - More Wind: The morning dawned hazy and windy, and plans to install the under-eave beams had to be scrapped for another day. On the 17th, the wind, which had gusted up to about 30 mph, blew the roof from its stow position to its fully open position, so there was a pleasant surprise for us this morning: the roof was closed and in the position we had left it on the 17th. We haven't installed the new hold-down locks for the roof yet, so the flap-door was closed and locked on the 17th. This has the effect of locking the roof in its stow position, but I hadn't expected the flap-door's hinges and screws to be strong enough to keep the roof closed in a strong wind. That it held the roof closed is a testament to Ted's sturdy design and Ben's skill in construction.
February 21, 2000 - Design Updates:
Several aspects of the building design have changed since they were
first described in these pages, or have been added, and I'd like to record a
couple of them here:
FLAP-DOOR: The flap-door in the South wall now hinges inward; it
is far easier to reach from the inside, especially when closing it.
ROOF HOLD-DOWNS: An arrangement of two handles and two pairs of
chains-and-hooks will both keep the roof horizontally stable in a fair wind and keep the
roof from lifting off and hence from sailing off to, say, Gila Bend.
The two handles on the inside South wall pivot around lag bolts screwed
into the top sill plate and engage positively with two heavy-duty eye-bolts in the South
roof wall; they function only when the roof is fully closed. A pair of
clip-hooks, similar to those with which key rings are attached to belt loops, are
attached to the frame of the building with sturdy chains, and they clip to large
eye-bolts attached to the inside North roof wall; they are used both when the roof
is fully closed and fully open. Another pair of clip-hooks is attached
to the outside rail support posts, and engage with eye-bolts attached to the inside
East and West roof walls.
February 23, 2000 - An Injury and A Wedge: Ben completes the wiring of the building and installing the GFCI outlets. However, while digging the electrical trench, he injures his left elbow with a puncture wound from one of the very sharp, 4-inch long thorns of a nearby mesquite tree. He is unable to use that arm completely, but is able, with some help, to install most of the "Z-bar" metal at the slab; one leg of the "Z" is caulked to the edge of the slab, and the other leg is attached to the sill plate with screws. Afterwards, we retired inside for strong coffee and turned our attention to the still unresolved problem of mounting the telescope mount wedge to the pier. In an hour and a half, Ben had worked out an easy, solid method of attaching the wedge to the pier without altering it (the wedge) in some fundamental way. In addition, Ted designed an easy and versatile way by which a much larger telescope's mount (i.e., my dream 24-inch Cassegrain!) could be attached to the pier with very few changes to Ben's structure. Ben's elbow was no better by the end of the brainstorming session, so he is taking tomorrow off to recuperate.
February 24, 2000 - The Weather Turns on Us: My hopes of starting to install the Observatory siding today were nixed by the return of bad weather - the crippling storms which hit Southern California the day before, arrived here, greatly attenuated in intensity of course, sometime during the night. Day dawned grey, cold, and windy. Worse still, Ben's arm is still giving him pain this morning. After speaking with a doctor, he feels it prudent to give the arm another two days to heal before resuming work, and I agree. The good news is that the sheet metal sheathing for the roof walls is ready, and Ted and I pick it up in the afternoon. Unable to work on the Observatory outside, I work on adding the construction pictures to these Web pages, prepare to install encoders on the telescope's RA and Dec axes, and catch up on some software development.
February 25, 2000 - Research:
Lizard Hollow Observatory's purpose is research, but construction of the
Observatory's building has meant putting it on the back burner. Back in
September, I had hoped that construction would be finished before the cold weather
set in. Now, after a brief flurry of mild storms the last few
weeks, signs of Spring are showing up: the Northern Cardinals, Golden
Flickers, Canyon Towhees, White Capped Sparrows, and an occasional
common Tit, have arrived for their brief Spring stay. I think
the nighttime freezes are past, and that it is safe to plant the Iris, Field Lily,
and hardy Gladiolus bulbs that have also been waiting for the Observatory's completion...
But I ramble!
Today, I was able to devote a few hours to research, with an eye to paring down the list of interesting projects that I'd prepared in a rush of
brainstorming. I was also able to begin the design process for the next
telescope, which will be an ~f/2 Cassegrain with a primary mirror of about
22"-26" in diameter. It has been many years since I've looked
at telescope optical designs, and I am relearning the details of the varieties of
Cassegrain-types of designs. Today's work have, unfortunately, shown-up
the deficiencies in my library! Most of my reference books are thirty
years old, and my reference material on telescope optics takes up for too little
bookshelf space.
Meanwhile, I am hoping Ben will have recovered enough by tomorrow to resume
construction.
February 26, 2000 - Another (Minor)
Injury: Today, Ben was well enough to finish the trench and his part in
the project. While helping him by shoveling out the loose dirt,
though, I whacked myself on the shin with shovel's edge, drawing
blood. I hope these injuries are the last ones on the project, but
the somewhat dangerous job of putting on the roofing sheet metal is still to be
done. Another storm is due here on Monday, and we are expecting
some wind from its outskirts tomorrow - another delay.
Ben finished up around 2:00 PM and, later in the afternoon, Ted and I install
the remaining "Z-bar" around the foundation. This went faster
than I expected it to, so I cleaned up the inside of the building a bit.
As of today, Ben's part of the construction job is done. Ted and I
will do the remaining work on the Observatory. To celebrate this
milestone, Ted and I repair to Borders for strong coffee and cookies!
February 27, 2000 - Electricity (Part I): I spent the sunny, very warm morning, in a breeze just strong enough to keep the sun from feeling too hot to work outdoors, laying out the electrical conduit from the house to the Observatory and feeding wires through it. I had gotten about half the length of the wire through the conduit before breaking for lunch and a lazy afternoon with friends at a postponed Christmas open house. Tomorrow is expected to be rainy and windy, so I don't expect much work to be done on the Observatory.
February 29, 2000 - "It's a wall!": Another leisurely day working on the Observatory, although it had its moments. The electrical is now nearly complete. The major milestone we met today, though, was installing the first section of sheet metal. This was tricky as a hole had to be cut into it to allow the electrical conduit to pass into the building. Actually attaching the corrugated metal to the building posed some problems as well, and we soon discovered that more screws per panel were going to be needed than the sheet metal manufacturer had led us to believe. So, with the sun lowering rapidly in the West, we celebrated by retiring for the usual strong coffee and a cookie...
Tomorrow is expected to be another rainy and windy day. The weather is now the major factor delaying construction.
LHO Research Notebook
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