My DREAM OBSERVATORY has WALLS!

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==Contents==
0:00 Intro / Recap
0:36 Building Roof Trusses
5:41 Wall Framing
12:17 Wall Sheathing
16:52 Tarping Strategy for Rain
17:56 Next steps
18:39 Squarespace (sponsor)

This video is sponsored by Squarespace.

[johnadastra]

Tips on painting - use a white, off white or cream color on the walls. Darker colors absorb more heat from sunlight and you will cook in the summer. Same for the roof - pick white corrugated metal. Tar shingles are heavy and hold heat a long time. Last tip - paint the interior before installing anything. The wood will get wet during the time the roof is open and soak into uncoated surfaces. All this learned while building my own observatory :). Good luck!!

[thunder]

For anyone watching this while planning your own build, a router can be used to cut out window openings after the sheathing has been installed, using a flush trim bit in your router. Drill out one corner from the inside, large enough for you bit. Then simple follow your wall studs all the way around.

[dalekim]

Came for the astrophotography, stayed for the carpentry.

[garyjohn]

The reason you may be off a little when lining up your cuts, because when you make a cut, you have to account for the width of the blade itself. That is called the Kerf. Great bulding plan though. I have 60 acres in East Texas where you can see the Milky way, and want to build an observatory.

[DennisCarmody]

Your construction process makes me very glad we have dry sunny weather most of the time. Wind was my biggest enemy when I built mine.

[northpole]

Nice job! I've built two homes for myself. Lumber is a bitch. Crowns, bows, twists, etc. Nice job.

[fff]

The flooding around me in New Hampshire with that heavy rain storm took out some bridges. Glad to see you didn't get washed away

[carlweber]

I don’t know if you’ve completed building your roof outriggers yet, but you haven’t, don’t make the tracks level with those of the building. On my observatory I have metal plates and angle iron for the casters to roll on. Because I made my outriggers level, I get water rolling back into the observatory which then drip down the walls. I think a slight downward angle would have prevented that.

[matej.mlakar]

Awesome project, its nice to see the progress. And I love your backyard too. Looks so peaceful there.

[Charlie_Echo]

Such an exciting project, Nico! I doubt I'll ever have the space to build an observatory but I always vicariously enjoy watching people make spaces that work just the way they want :)

[GhostSenshi]

Super excited for your first light with the observatory

[tubedude]

I'll be doing this come spring... taking notes from all the videos I'm watching right now...

[hawkesworth]

It's looking good.
I know what you mean about doing something like this by yourself. It's nice to be able to say 'I built it' rather than 'we built it'.
I'll be starting my 2 metre x 2 metre storage shed/observatory in the next few days and using heavy duty drawer slides for a lightweight flat roof.

[mr.b]

Looking good! El Nino winter, hopefully you will be dryer than normal.

[frrapp]

looking good lot of progress for this time of year. a trick we found while doing craft show on popup canopies was to bow a pool noodles in the corners to hold the top from sagging similarly a couple of pvc pipes could be bowed against the walls to keep your tarp from sagging in the middle ( also good to use for conduit latter) looking forward to learn more from your build hope to someday get an observatory made for us as we live in one of those good dark spaces (3/4 mile to nearest neighbor and12 to the nearest town) HAVE FUN and happy holidays

[louzyla]

Looks real good. You are so accurate and precise. I have had my observatory for 17 years. After about 6years the roll off rails made of 4x6’s started slowly bending and warping.i had a 14 ft span with a 4x4 in the middle. I eventually switched to steel ibeams and the problem went away. My angle iron which the V groove wheels ride on was welded to the i-beam.

[martinausterfield]

Only a couple of hours ago wondering where you had gone. Glad to see more content.

[pattimaclaughlin]

I give you a lot of credit for staying so patient with this build!!! It’s going to be amazing!!!

[Rtd_astro]

For the siding paint the bottom to stop wicking moisture over time. Nice work looks awesome

[robb]

Definately coming along nicely. I can relate to double marking the studs as I do the same. Same frustrastion with the rain during the build. When you get to the roof, consider using 3/4" shims between the wall top-caps and the runners holding the trusses in place. This will let you put all the trusses in place and squared up adding in the rails afterwards. I found that by doing this, once the rails were fit and the rollers screwed in place, the roof actually lifted off the shims. It also let me function the rolling roof before adding the additional weight of the full roof. There was no problem supporting my weight to close up the roof panneling - Food for thought. Would love to see you do a follow-up presentation on how to determine your FOV within the shed when looking to shoot DSO's.