Following Walt’s first-time visit to the Riverside Telescope Maker’s Conference at Big Bear this weekend, the home observatory bug accompanied him on the drive home.Â Not having a decent backyard to accommodate a standard roll-off roof observatory and wanting to steer away from tearing up the lawn, flower beds and sprinkler system, it was decided that the best bet was to be on top of the backyard wall.Â A new “observatory patio” is born.Â A long ways to go.Â A great deal of the excavation work is extremely solid shale material, so there is a lot of pick work.Â Dynamite would really be great, but Walt’s wife would not like the consequences 🙂

$Following Walt\'s first-time visit to the Riverside Telescope Maker\'s Conference at Big Bear this weekend, the home observatory bug accompanied him on the drive home. Not having a decent backyard to accommodate a standard roll-off roof observatory and wanting to steer away from tearing up the lawn, flower beds and sprinkler system, it was decided that the best bet was to be on top of the backyard wall. A new \"observatory patio\" is born. A long ways to go. A great deal of the excavation work is extremely solid shale material, so there is a lot of pick work. Dynamite would really be great, but Walt\'s wife would not like the consequences.$

$Really cooking with gas on all four burners now. Making excellent progress on the stepping stones, courtesy of Walt\'s daughter Robin who is doing all of the brick and wall block placement work. And excavation of the hole for the pier is complete at 42\" deep.$ $Preliminary placement of the pier, which won\'t be concreted in for at least several days or a week or more until more of the stepping stone placement is complete, which will determine exactly where the post goes, to fit in the space of one brick. The wedge base unit sitting on top of the pier is pointing directly at Polaris to the right.$ $Walt\'s homemade wedge base and accessory tray unit. It is mounted on top of the stainless steel pipe pier using four automotive valve springs which permit precise leveling of the wedge base independently of the pier alignment. The spring concept is courtesy of Tom Smith whose advice has been invaluable.$

$The secret of aligning the pier and wedge at Polaris is the compass you see glued to the top of the wedge platform. Walt set up the scope elsewhere in the yard one night and aligned it to Polaris, then glued the compass dial to the wedge. It should be close enough to get started. The alignment can be tweaked later using the \"drift method\" (which Walt has yet to attempt).$

$A new observatory is born ... the Oak Hill Observatory! Certainly does not measure up to Lick or Palomar or Keck, but it will do for Walt\'s purposes.$

$Oak Hill Observatory \"patio\" is complete. Due to the desire to install an 8\' wide x 7\' deep roll-off roof enclosure, the pad was widened by 2 feet. The block wall operation by Walt and daughter Robin took 10 hours, including 4 hours of hauling the 240 blocks up the steep driveway by hand. What \"fun\"! Could barely move after that job! :-)$

$There it is. All finished. But, still have to install exterior trim, as Walt\'s wife would like it to look something like the house exterior. Also considering installing a fold-down table in the upper section of the door, to be use for holding charts, etc.$

$Walt\'s Celestron Ultima 11 gets its first feel of the new location. Great view of the southern sky, but pretty poor looking north (can\'t even see Polaris due to heavy trees). Better than nothing.$

[Show picture list]

Central Coast Astronomical Society

Sharing the night sky above San Luis Obispo County, California, since 1979.

Walt Reil’s Oak Hill Observatory

Star Party at Santa Margarita Lake Park

Virtual Stargazing Live Stream

Star Party at Santa Margarita Lake Park