New L-shaped desk and IKEA drawer cabinet.

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Thursday: My hip is now feeling much better but I will still have to be careful. The IKEA, steel chest of drawers kit is due to arrive at the pick-up point today. I will have to use a trolley to reach the car with the heavy box. 12kg is 25lbs. 

Once home and assembled, I will [eventually] have a solid, vertical and lateral support for the other "leg" of the L-desk. Until then, I am putting off grappling with a large sheet of thick, birch ply for a one piece top. I'll use existing off-cuts, to make a full L-shaped mock-up. Rather than wasting expensive materials working in the dark.

Provided I maintain mechanical clearance from the pier I may be able to gain an inch, or three, in shelf depth by overhanging the slope of the pier. An adjustable metal leg might be neater on the right nearest the trapdoor. It needs to be laterally stiff without too much bulk. I will move quite frequently from the desk to the telescope focusers on the right over the trapdoor. Anything which gets in the way of my big feet could be a nuisance and potentially a dangerous tripping point.

I had already radiused the corner of the existing desk [laptop shelf] on that side and it has proved fine in practice. I haven't walked into that corner of the shelf yet despite it being a potential traffic black spot. I am often still rising from the last but one tread of the big stepladder when I need to turn sharp right. Then right again to reach the desk chair on the north side of the obs.

A slightly higher shelf height might be worthwhile. The IKEA drawer cabinet is exactly the same height as the underside of my original shelf. Packing the height an inch or two, above or below is very easily done, if needed. I see the chest of drawers as becoming the major anchor point for the new desk. It will help to avoid the [now] free standing desk migrating around the observatory and pier. They have wheels [castors] which I shall forego in the interests of desk stability.

Contact with the pier must be totally avoided to ensure isolation from building vibrations. Even when I am not literally hopping up and down, to test the pier isolation, the wind often acts on the building. Given the very high magnifications of the telescopes. Particularly when fitted with a small chip, astro camera like the ZWO120MC. The slightest vibration will ruin videos or stills. The wind can also catch the top ends of the telescopes. so I leave the dewshield off the 7".

Friday: I spent an hour trying to image the sun as cloud moved across and then thickened.

As you can see from the images scattered here, the IKEA chest of drawers kit finally arrived. It took me an hour to build but a second one would probably take me under a quarter of an hour. Delighted with the flawless finish and genial design. No screws required except for the small castors underneath and the U-handles. The whole thing locks together with tabs pushed through slots and then flattened like a pre-1950s tinplate toy.

I easily fitted all my five, full shelves of astro accessories into the drawers. Still in their snap-on lid containers and I still had room to spare. The drawers slide effortlessly and even have stops so they don't fall right out onto the floor.  Even my wife was impressed and liked my sophisticated colour choice of pale blue rather than black. The Helmer drawer set cost about £25 equivalent plus postage. Quite a bargain despite the DIY aspect.

I have just realized that I  haven't taken a picture of the completed unit. What a silly person! I carried the outer case up to the observatory sans drawers. Just to save struggling up there with too much weight. It needs 3/4" inch of packing to bring it up to the same level as the desk top. Because I deliberately left the wheels off for stability. I don't want my new desk going "walkies" do I?

Click on any image for an enlargement.

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