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ST. WIGGLES OBSERVATORY:
Here is where I had to leave off before a historic winter storm covered everything with several inches of snowfall and frigid temperatures. Today, the high never hit 30 degrees, and that's just weird for Seattle. Already, my observatory has been cursed by our weather. Here, you can see the window and the rails that will enable half the roof to retract. No sense making the entire roof retract as I can't see the zenith or to the north at all. This observatory is strictly for lunar, planetary and solar viewing.
The front wall will fold down (the part not yet completed) completely opening the southern exposure. And when not in use, the observatory will be locked up tight. The construction is very solid and very heavy duty. I've actually done more work since this photo was taken (completing the T-111, additional framing supports, 4x4 supports for the roof rails, etc.) but have been unable to get a photo as I worked out in the falling snow - until it became unbearable.
As I said in a previous blog entry, I have finally settled on a name for my observatory: St. Wiggles Observatory. St. Wiggles is the patron saint of the 2Fellers. The name is carried over from Mt. St. Wiggles, a Cascades-range volcano that grew in my front yard on Yukon Harbor Drive in Port Orchard, Washington. My kids grew up hiking the flanks of Mt. St. Wiggles - and the rednecks down on the beach envied what I had.
(Click below to continue reading and to see a photo of Mt. St. Wiggles.)
But enough about that. Moving onto the observatory, you might notice that it is surrounded by towering fir trees. The logical question would be this: Why build your observatory in the middle of a forest?
The question is easily answered: we live on several acres and the property is covered with fir trees from north to south, east to west. From any given location on our property you can see only a small portion of the sky. When observing, I have found about eight different locations on the property that give me a small window to completely different sections of the sky. Pictured above is the southern sky, and the ecliptic (depending on time of year) rides right over the treeline. It's the only place on the property that I can view this important plane and the decision was made to place the observatory in a location where I could take advantage of that - even if for only an hour or two on optimal nights. The observatory faces several degrees west of true south and the view ranges from about 20 to 40 degrees above the horizon. That's it. Also problematic is that from the observatory, I can't see north. But I would likely only do alt-azimuth viewing/photography along the ecliptic plane anyway, so it shouldn't matter.
My wife and I quip that before too long, I'll have eight to ten little observatories all over the property. One for true north, one for zenith, one for M42, one for lunar, one for solar, etc. etc. etc. It was a ridiculous idea when we began joking about it, but it's making more sense now. :)
And, as promised, a photo of the ever-grand Mt. St. Wiggles, the newest Cascades Range volcano. It roared to life in what was once a flat, peaceful section of front yard along Yukon Harbor Drive in Port Orchard, Washington. The mountain offered us fun, challenging hiking opportunities but as with any live volcano, great care had to be taken to not fall off it's steep slopes. I remember that my daughters used to love our "volcano" and we spent countless hours outside watching it "erupt." :)
As this blog was migrated from my previous blog, I've archived previous comments here. Please comment below!
Is that the shadow of the Space Needle I see there at the base of that new volcano???
Posted by: Herman Klugwedt | September 25, 2007 08:23 PM
I'll bet it's beautiful when snow-capped. Do you require hiking permits or can anyone just show up on the trail?
Posted by: Toby Maletchki | October 4, 2007 07:47 AM
I think that one thing I'm thankful for on this Thanksgiving is the huge erection taking shape out in the woods. Here, the observatory walls go up and finally stand erect. Now, to start shoring up the erection so it stays up indefinitely and building the infrastructure to support the retractable roof. The erection has an opening on the top, one which faces south and is aligned with the equatorial plane, averaged for seasons.
The observatory now has a name: St. Wiggles Observatory. This name hearkens back many years to when my kids were very young and pays tribute to St. Wiggles, patron saint of the 2Fellers.
As this blog was migrated from my previous blog, I've archived comments below. Feel free to leave a comment!
All hail St. Wiggles! May this erection be unflagging and everlasting! Though if this erection persists for more than four hours, a medical doctor should be consulted. Heh. :P
Posted by: Paul E. Zimmerman | November 24, 2006 12:10 PM
REALLY??? You're kidding. Right? ;)
Posted by: Jim W. Coleman | November 24, 2006 12:43 PM
The side walls of the observatory are built and lying down on the floor, stacked atop one another to ensure the measurements are exact.
For the flooring, I'm using a double layer of OSB boards, screwed to 2x4 floor beams set 15 inches to centers. This will make it difficult to do deep sky work as the act of walking will likely cause the floor to flex sufficiently to move the telescope off-target. It will mean sitting perfectly motionless during exposure time or, more likely, exposing while standing outside the building. I am working on a plan to make that possible. And should I ever decide to put in a permanent pier, it will be fairly simple to remove part of the flooring to set one in. The pier is the preferred way to go for most people, but not in this case. More on that later as the observatory project continues ...
UPDATE:
Now, nearly a year later, I'm planning on ripping out the floor, augering a deep hole and constructing a permanent pier for the telescope.
It is becoming clear that in the Pacific Northwest, where rain can be constant and one can wait patiently to take advantage of a one-hour break in the cloud cover, an observatory structure is important. Here is the start, several hours after initial groundbreaking (which was more like back-breaking ground CLEARING :)
Up to this point, I've had to break down the telescope and carry everything inside, only to pack it back out when it clears and to pack it back in an hour later when the rain falls again. It's not good for my back, it's not good for the telescope and viewing conditions are far from optimal as the telescope is subjected to rapid changes in temperature. This makes viewing difficult and photography next to impossible.
While the telescope will not be in the observatory most of the time, the structure will allow me to keep it polar aligned for days at a time, making it easier to take advantage of those optimal viewing moments.
It is 4:25 a.m. as I write this, Saturday morning, November 11, 2006. I woke up an hour and a half ago with a monstrous urge to go pee. It happens when you get my age. After taking care of that, I stumbled out into the kitchen to get a drink of water so I could go back to bed and catch another hour or so of sleep. As I walked into the kitchen, I suddenly knew that there would be no more sleep for me this morning...
We have a large skylight in the kitchen and as I walked to the refrigerator, I saw the half-moon shining brightly overhead. Its light cast a large, rectangular shadow on the kitchen floor. The shadows of my legs were dark and well-defined. That could only mean one thing - no clouds!
You see, when you live near Seattle (Port Orchard, west side of Puget Sound), there are not many cloudless nights this time of year. In fact, you've probably seen images on your television of all the flooding in our area, some of it within miles of our house - and yes, some of it right on our property. It's been a soggy, miserable November.
I saw the moon! Resigned to the fact that there now was only one course of action, I moved quickly into my writing studio to grab a camera and my C-90 spotting scope, figuring I could get some quick pictures of that lunar orb. But, being a die-hard, I saw the LX-90 standing in the corner and fancied hearing it call my name: "Jimmmmmm, take me outside .... I want to go outside ... Jimmmmmmm .... "
Now that telescope is a different story. It's not a "Point and Shoot." It has to be disassembled, moved outside (a back-breaking job), reassembled on the tripod, aligned, and then outfitted with whatever accessories are required for a good night's (or morning's) viewing. Not to mention the fact that I have to kill the security light breakers in the garage, locate an extension cord, swap out the t-rings and t-mounts on the camera, etc. etc. etc.
I did it. Of course I did it. You know I did it. I had to do it. This is Seattle. One doesn't get this opportunity often in the winter.
By the time I had everything set up and ready to align, I noticed that clouds were rolling in. In fact, I only got one alignment star centered before the clouds obscured all the others within my viewing range. I still could see the moon, granted, but its lines were no longer sharp. Doggedly determined, I slewed the scope skyward and did manage to get some photos of the moon as clouds raced by overhead. I think I even got some relatively clear shots through breaks in the clouds. But I'll have to wait until Rite-Aid opens to get the film processed into negative strips and ready for scanning.
Why do I share this story? Well, for one simple reason: so you know that I was outside freezing my butt off while you were all safe and sound and warm in your little snore beds! That's why! :)
But also just to illustrate that we all have our hobbies, our passions, our things that make us feel good. If you're a regular reader of any of my blogs, you'll already know how often I lug that telescope out just to get skunked by the weather or some other factor.
But as Harry Chapin once said, "It's got to be the going, not the getting there, that's good." I had a good time in the wee hours of the morning and I think that's what really counts.
(Photos above were the result of this morning's foray out into the dark driveway..)
DIARY OF NOVEMBER 8, 2006:
As you astronomy buffs know, Mercury is due to transit (cross) the face of the sun today, beginning at 11:12 a.m. (PST) and continuing for about five hours. I've looked forward to this for a month and have readied myself by ordering new equipment and fine tuning drive motors on my LX90 telescope to accurately track Mercury. But, as luck would have it, it's rained very hard and constantly the last week and the forecast is not all that good today. On top of that, the camera I ordered for this event did not show up, though it may show up today in time to be used, but that would have to be early in the day and thus, is not too likely. Here's how my day went today. (It's still only 6:30 a.m. at the time of this writing, but I will update throughout the day).
I went outside at 5 a.m. and saw the 3/4 moon looming high overhead. Not prepared for this (having focused only on the Sun today), I grabbed my old, classic, trusty Celestron 90, threw a Minolta X-370 on its butt, set it on a tripod and snapped some photos. The photography gear is pictured above. Since this is a film camera, I'll have to wait to see if the photos came out. Because it is heavy and non-balanced, camera shake is extreme and the pictures would likely be blurry. In anticipation of that, I used a bulb setting and covered the aperture with some dark foam, removing it briefly to expose the image before returning it to the front and releasing the bulb. We'll see. Now, just to watch more election results and wait to see what happens later in the day.
TIME: Noonish
It might seem odd, but because our property is so densely forested, the only way I can get a clear shot of the sun is to set up out in the woods, far from the house, and shoot through small openings in the trees. It's quite frustrating, that it is. But not so frustrating as the dense cloud cover today. I don't know if I'll get my shot, or not. Here, I have the telescope automatically tracking Mercury across the face of the Sun. We'll see if I can get a shot.
Because I expect it to rain at any moment, I have a tarp ready to cover the telescope as there's no way I could get it over 80 yards of forest and into the house in time. Here also is a look at what I'm seeing. Mercury is out there somewhere. Just as it always has been, come rain or come shine.
TIME: 12:55 p.m.
Wow! I saw it!!! The clouds parted briefly and I peered through the eyepiece. There was little Mercury, about the size of a pea, inside the sharply-defined border of the Sun! It was a magnificent sight. About 20 seconds later, the Sun was once again obscured by clouds. NOW I know what Pink Floyd was singing about in that song... Meanwhile, I'll sit and play with fir needles and watch the squirrels while I wait for the clouds to part again. And that's not to mention waiting for my camera to arrive. I will tell you one thing: expresscameras.com is NOT express. Never got a tracking number, and when I called to inquire, I was told it would "be here midweek." And it sounded like the operator had better things to do. Well, they won't have to deal with me anymore - once the camera arrives, that is. I ordered the battery grip from Amazon.com four days after ordering the Canon EOS 20D, and that came two days ago. I keep it on my side of the bed. :)
TIME: 1:25 p.m.
My wife text'd me to say that it is sprinkling up near Harrison Hospital in Bremerton, roughly 15 miles north of here. I went out immediately and shrink-wrapped the solar filter at the business end of my LX90 to protect it should it start sprinkling here. I can handle a little sprinkle without breaking out the tarp, but judging by the looks of things in the firmament, this day is likely over. I think I have one more hour before the Sun moves out of my shuttered viewing window through the trees so I'll continue to keep my fingers crossed. Meanwhile, I come in to enjoy the early photos posted to the LX-90 Yahoo group.
TIME: 2:00 p.m.
All I can figure, the gods must hate me today. It started raining at a pretty good clip so I hurriedly disassembled the telescope and lugged it back to the house with all the gear. Made it just in time as the rain really picked up. As I was tightening the telescope to the base, I noticed the room getting brighter and walked outside in time to see the rain stop and the Sun peer through the trees in the front yard! By this point, there's no where on my property that I can see it anyway - but if it does clear, I may be able to lug the scope down the street on a dolly and still have a chance. Not likely, however. That sounds too much like work. Sometimes a man just has to accept that after a month's worth of preparation, a wasted vacation day from work and more than enough frustration with a camera vendor and with the television news weatherman - a beer at the end of the day is just the ticket. Think I'll go get mine punched. ;)
TIME: 2:42 p.m.
Okay, now I'm really convinced that I have irritated the great gods. Or someone. It's still cloudy, my camera has not arrived, the telescope is inside, the Democrats control the House and my cat is cranky. Looking for some solace, I figured that I would take the film out of the Minolta and run it up to Rite Aid. "If I got some great pictures of the moon," I thought, "that would salvage some of this day and my wife wouldn't think I was such a fool for hunkering down in the forest with a telescope, dodging rain, etc. etc. in the hopes of catching a glimpse of the sun in Port Orchard, Washington on a cloudy day." Yes, some good pictures from my morning moon-shot would be just the thing to make me sleep better tonight.
However, when I went to rewind the 35mm film, the crank spun too easily - and I realized, with horror, that THERE WAS NO FILM IN THE CAMERA! So not only did I waste my early morning hours by shooting blanks at the moon, I would not have captured Mercury even if the sun had blazed right down on me! I'm so used to digital cameras and so far removed from film cameras now that I neglected to check the indicator to make sure there was film in the camera. Boy, do I feel stupid now. I think I'll go in the room and have a good pout and see what I can learn from this experience.
I still hold onto the hope that my new camera will arrive today, but the way things have gone, it was probably delivered to the wrong address several days ago.
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