Lizard Hollow Observatory Construction Journal
November, 1999:

November 1, 1999 - "It's a Site, It's a Site!":     At about 7:30 am of a beautiful sunny morning, the construction crew arrives.    The forms were up and the pier erected, all before dinner.     Here's a photo journal, with minimal comments:

Site prep was finished and the forms were up before I could finish breakfast.   I arrived just in time to see the guys fire up the post hole digger, and was very impressed with the skill needed for this essentially dangerous job.

Here's the four-foot-deep hole for the telescope pier.   Eight inches in diameter and filled with micro-fiber mesh concrete, it will provide a rigid support for the telescope.     Note:  This is not another giant ant hill.

Here's the 8"-diameter steel pipe inserted into its supporting hole, just before the foundation was poured.    A red duct tape covered thickness of "flex" will insulate the pier from any possible vibrations induced in the foundation floor.

November 2, 1999 - The Pour!:    The crew and concrete truck showed up bright and early at 7:00 am.    By 9:00 am, the foundation was poured and the steel pipe pier filled with concrete.

Master Concrete Person Mannie (at left), shoveled the concrete into the pier and did all the concrete work himself.    The other guys in the crew tell me that the reason the Roman Forum is still standing is because Mannie did the concrete work.

The finished foundation and pier.    The pier is 4-feet in height and the finished size of the slab is 10' x 12'4".    The camera is facing nearly due Southwest in all the pictures of this sequence.  Note:  This is not a picture of a bomb shelter's roof and exhaust pipe.

November 4, 1999 - I Am Poor Again (Part II):    I hand-carried a check for the balance of the contract over to the company's office, so I am beginning to eye my mutual fund balances again.    The guys did a superb job on the foundation and pier.    The pier did end up accurately plumbed - it's nearly dead on - , and the foundation is actually 4-inches longer in one dimension than I specified, so I am very pleased with the way this project turned out.


November 6, 1999 - Oops!:    There's always an "Oops!" in every construction project.    This one belongs to me.     Turns out the circular bracket that weds the telescope mount to the pier has four "ears" (to which the tripod legs could be bolted) that make the overall diameter of the bracket greater than 8-inches.    So the "ears" will have to be ground off and the bracket repainted black.     Could have been a bigger "Oops!".


November 10, 1999 - The Shed:    With the foundation ready, Ted began doing the detailed drawings of the shed.    Meanwhile, I hunt up steel prices and start doing - uh, spending -  time at the Steward Observatory Library.

I discussed some preliminary design issues with Ted:   The walls will be six feet high, making the top of the wall at approximately the height of the telescope's declination axis.    A custom door will have to be built and fitted into one wall (the East one, probably).     Additionally, since the roof will roll off to the North, the top of the South wall will be higher than the other walls;  the extra height will need to be a single piece, removable by some method so as not to block the near-southern horizon sky.    Adequate ventilation will have to be provided in a way that does not provide access to the shed when it is locked.    And, finally, 110-V AC power will have to be provided to the shed.

November 15, 1999 - The Plan:    The detailed plans are nearly done.    Remaining tasks include creating the "take-off list" from the plans, ordering the steel, and finding help with cutting the steal beams and siding to size and welding them in place.    The take-off list is a detailed list of the parts and pieces necessary to build the shed and is used in ordering the parts - in this case, steel beams, siding, the caster wheels, etc.

Three of the design issues mentioned in the November 10 entry were resolved:   1) ventilation will be by standard louvers found at any Home Depot and modified by the addition of an insect barrier screening on the interior side of the louvers;   2) the extra height on the South wall will be limited to a piece about 15-inches high and approximately 18" in length, and will be hinged and will swing open to the outside, thus not blocking that area of sky;   3) the door to the observatory will be custom built and by about 3'-8" in width, allowing easy entry of equipment.   Still to be addressed are how to get 110-V AC power into the building in a cheap, easy way;  as I hope to make the telescope remotely and automatically operated, a network cable will one day be needed.

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