"The Obsevatory" construction is set to begin. For anyone who may be interested I will take you through a picture and short discription as the building process unfolds. We will start with a solid foundation, it will be the anchor for 

                                  "The Observatory".

After many months of discussing size and placement with my Lovely Wife (Gail) and partner in this hobby we decided to make the concrete slab for our project a little bigger than "The Observatory" it self and to place it next to our backyard pond. That way the extra footage would make a nice outdoor patio area to enjoy aswell as being the best place for viewing the nights sky.

 Next we purchased a building permit which the law requires in my area for new construction. That makes it time to look for and hire a qualified cocncrete contractor to be able to pour our footed concrete piers for our telescope mounts along with a 6" reinforced slab. which we did with hiring Kokomo concrete services who has went above and beyond what was expected.

                                               So let"s get started!

    After getting electrical + data lines run from the house to "The Observatory" and to each individual telescope pier it was time to dig the holes to 38" for the piers themselves. Each pier I chose to be seprate from the slab to help control movement after settling. We framed in the side patio and telescope piers to start with then it was time for the first of two pours.

The first pour was a cold and semi rainy day but with concrete you have to preorder and hope for the best well this was the best today and it sure did'nt stop the crew of Kokomo concrete.

Time to get ready for the second pour of concrete. after removing forms for the two piers and the inner patio we placed an expansion gasket between pour one concrete and pour two concrete to seperate the pier from all other concrete.

And finally after curing for a time the concrete crew is finishing up by appling sealer to the newly finished slab as they do all there completed work. Now it's waiting for the roll off roof observatory which is being built over in Illnois to be completed. I've decided to save a little cash I'll rent a box truck and pick it up myself then return and start the installation.