You have to take that big boulder and make it a landscape feature for your shed. Right near the entrance so you are reminded what it took to build it. Love the video

Someone probably already identified the metal parts. But just in case, it is a "work-horse" bridle. More specifically it is the "bit" the part that goes in the horses mouth. It probably was hand forged.

Nice to see the steel toed Crocs. Construction footwear of discerning professionals. Great video, really enjoying the journey.

My 4 year old son get very excited to see your video because of the construction tools. For a role off roof your choice of the the wind sheltered spot is a wise choice for a roll off roof. its also nice to see you did not take a chainsaw to your woods like most people do. It took a long time to grow those trees. Your Mystery Iron item you dug up looks like some sort of horsed bridal or harness accessory.

C14 ready on the right 😆

If there's ever a next time, take the blade off your recip saw and using it's now bladeless head, use it against the sonotube to get out air bubbles. MUCH quicker than tapping.

I love to do things myself. Anything. Electronics, lighting, electrical wiring, building... Things get ugly, often messy... But you really do enjoy doing them, and the sense of pride while using them is nothing you can describe. Even the imperfections seem like part of the plan... 😂 Get it done Niko, here's my view for the algorithm.

I think this is the first time i watch an entire youtube video without missing a second.... i feel like i just lived my dream trough it :D good job and great video, amazing project.

Welcome to NH. Enjoy our rocky soil and semi cloudy skies. Glad you're able to be in bortle 3 though. I'm in bortle 5.

Thanks!

I love your channel, and love the fact that you're now doing well enough with this channel to follow your dreams. Congrats on that, and congrats on being a homeowner! But now building your OWN observatory from scratch, by yourself, is a laudable project. I've been a DIYer for decades, and the personal satisfaction that follows after you finish your customized project is always worth the pain and hard work. Clearly you need lots of prior planning, and you almost can't overthink your wants and needs. My experience with using contractors to do projects almost always ends up with both concessions AND cost overruns, and their process focuses on just finishing, whereas your process focuses on perfecting. I can't wait to see the final result!

Happy to see your going to get your observatory! Can't wait to see the big projects you'll be able to take on.

As a builder using the metric system, in Australia we call it the "3 4 5 rule" peg out your shed footprint 1x3m side and 1x4m side, to make it square close off the triangle with a 5m hypotenuse and voila you have 2 sides of your shed marked and they are square....

So fun to watch someone work through an interesting project.

Incredibly happy for you Nico! Max

Thank you for a well thought out and presented video diary. I'm looking forward to the next installment.

What an exciting project! I understand the feeling of "I woke up early for a full day of working with concrete". It's not like you can do some of it, stop and come back later. Once you're going, you're going and it doesn't stop until you're done :p

Living your passion! Inspiring!

Amazing DIY observatory 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

Congratulations! God bless!!!

Love this build idea. I just built a fairly large sliding wall using unistrut and unistrut trollies. Engineered properly, I could see using a system like this to make a small roof move.

From one librarian to another, good for you, man! I’m envious…

Clean up that massive rock and make it a feature stone with a name on it for the house or observatory. Great video!

Nico, enjoying your channel. You will have fun doing this yourself. Very rewarding. I have been enjoying your journey. Tony, your friendly Canadian subscriber. Thought I would send you a couple of thoughts regarding the dream observatory I recently just “more or less” finished. I build a 10x12 roll off. Love, love, love it. Some thoughts. 1) don’t cheap out on the fasteners that you use (screw everything. If you F,,,,,up, you can easily redo. 2) over build cross supports for your floor as rectangles are weaker than squares. Use lots of cross supports and 45 degree supports, for the floor structure. Use 2x6 for all your walls and floor construction. At least 1” subfloor. Glue and screw floor. That way, you will have a structure that does not flex, (less vibration). I used a very strong and light roofing that Home Depot Canada sells. It is a wavy reconstituted thin asphalt roofing. Did I mention it’s wicked light, and very strong for Canadian winter. Wheels for your roof track, use wheels with grease nipples, so they can always be maintained! HD also sells a terrific pre primed mould resistant wood siding. It looks great and will save you grief down the road. Heavy, but makes your structure even stronger, when you screw it in. Use bracing on your walls at 45 degree angles screw it in under tension. Makes the building much more resistant to wind and storms. Makes it much stronger too. Metal rolls are pre punched and easy to install, with screws. DON’T BUY YOUR LUMBER FROM HD! Their wood is shit! Go to a lumber store, with a yard you can browse to pick out your wood. All beams have a crown, not perfectly straight. When building your roof structure, ensure that all your beams are installed with the crowns one way. That way your roof will not have dips and valleys. Incorporate ample ventilation in your roof. I insulated mine as it’s really only warm a few months of the year, where I am. I added a big buddy heater with a 20lb propane tank outside the structure. It’s great for taking the chill off, if you work out there, for any substantial period of time. The 18,000 btu model has a hose kit for using the heater with a 20lb tank. I would invest in a combo set of Good quality CORDLESS Drill / IMPACT DRIVER/ hell: CIRCULAR SAW for your build. They will last for years. Every house needs some serious power tools. Forgot,,,,,a GOOD QUALITY HAMMER yeah,,,,,a couple of HD SAW HORSES will serve you well for the project. 10x18, building is a lot of sawing , angles cutting, drilling, screwing. One more MUST have,,,,,a speed square. ( it’s a triangular tool that is indispensable, if you want to build a square , not lopsided building. HEY, owning a home, those tools will pay you back in no time! Do not cheap out!!! Buy good tools, and fasteners! Nail your walls together, but screw everything else. Enjoy my friend. Have fun. Take tons of pictures!

Really interested and looking forward to the build thread!

Good for you, Niko. Congrats! Hope you use that large flat rock as the outside threshold. It'll be a good memory for you.

That is an awesome project, look forward to seeing the finished product!

Congratulations - always happy to see people leave the rat race and be successful working at what they love!

1 hour is a kid we move to Arizona. My next door neighbor worked for NASA. And he had a homemade observatory in his back yard, it was so cool.

There should be insulation between the ground and cement when pouring columns - you can lay thick roofing material or pour cement into a plastic pipe, the depth is at least a meter, otherwise in spring, after frosts, the column may "float" and skew.

Good luck on your build. Looking forward to seeing the progress.

Good luck Nico. Nice pair of piers to start with!

I work with concrete every day and I gotta say you did everything really well for never doing anything like that before. And yes best way to do something that has hardware for attaching something a wooden template is the way to go! Looks awesome so far!

Unquestionably a great milestone for your. Happy that your Dreams closer now to realization. Best wishes.

Could that iron thing be a snafle bit for horses? Surly the lumber industry used them back in the days... Good luck on your build!

Looks great Nico. Can't wait to see the next video!!

Congratulations Nico!!!! An amateur astronomer's dream come true! Can't wait to see the next videos! Great job and lovely new house!!!

So excited for you! Thanks for taking us along on your new journey!!!

I just finished mine about a month ago and it is a game changer, I have so much more enjoyment from the hobby than ever before. I did a budget build with a new metal shed I got from an auction and converted it. I didn't put a pier in cause I wasn't sure if I was going to stay at this location or eventually move in a few years. Gratz on making it happen. I look forward to seeing your build and the projects that come from it.

This is awesome!

Congrats on the Bortle 3 property, and that you are able to do this full time! My wife and I made the jump to full time amateur astronomy in 2016, and haven't looked back! I'm super inspired by this build. We just picked up some land under Bortle 3 skies (about 8 hours from you, in Nova Scotia). Hoping to build our observatory late this year or early next. Our goal is to do a domed observatory, and have it open to the public for EAO, and as a remote observatory as well.

I have plans for a roll off roof observatory myself. I just installed the second concrete base for it.

Good Luck Nico. Your earlier tutorials taught me how to do Astrophotography with a camera and my luck finding a good Celestron 4 inch telescope and having an extension roof right outside my window. I think Astrophotography is the perfect way to learn about photography in general. Layering, exposure time, manual settings, ISO settings, fast lenses.

Excellent job Nico!

Looks like a great project. Lots of potensial. Ill be looking for more on this. Good luck. Astrobill

Clear skies forever and a day Nico. Take care, have fun and keep on looking up

Good Luck!

Congratulations Nico! Love your work and influence and looking forward to seeing the new work your new place will allow you!

It's inspiring to see you make your dreams a reality. the entire process seems extremely fun (also challenging) and totally worth it. you earned this nico!

Looks great Nico! Can't wait to see it when it's finished.

You could do a half wall with tracks mounted on the outside and have the half walls be seating and table. I watched the video where you visited Alan and he seemed to have trouble with bugs and whatnot, snow moisture etc, and the rails being a trip hazard. All that would go away in my opinion by making it not mounted on the ground but being resting on a lets say chair height wall where the tracks sit in a recess. But to avoid it being super ugly the mouse might need to be a bit longer to have enough wall for rails to go onto when you slide the top half of the house backwards. Basically a combination of Alans sliding roof and sliding house, a hybrid solution. At least thats what I'd go with. I also don't recommend using wood for the top structure, it will warp sooner or later. Maybe use metal tubes welded and the sides should connect to the upper portion as a triangle rather than a single plane. Doesn't have to be a big angle, but that will certainly help. If you need inspiration for structurally stable construction look up cranes at harbours used for container loading/uloading. It is essentially the same. A metalworker with welding experience from a shop could probably also give you tips on how to construct something like this. Maybe you have a metal workshop in your area. Those bigger shops usually also have pretty big high mounted cranes in their halls and they need to service and troubleshoot those and they can tell you exactly what problems you will face.

Very cool. I'd recommend pricing a concrete truck delivery for the slab. Concrete truck on site for mine (very rural, the one you saw with the sheep, 9x9 feet by 9 inches deep) was about the same price as mixing it all myself, and you will need a lot more concrete for your slab than you used for those piers. I have pix of all of it if you want to see.

Congrats bro. Finally your dream came true.❤

Love the video, and I can't wait to see how this goes to the end. A couple things, I don't know why, but without seeing it, I just couldn't picture you doing work like this. It's awesome to see though. The second thing, my best guess for what that mystery item is you dug up. I would guess it's part of an old horse bridle. Probably from back when they used horses to drag the logs out.

So awesome. What an adventure - not just building the obsy but moving and doing what you love full time. I'm a couple weeks behind you on my own obsy build. Can't wait to wait next update for any ideas I can use!! lol

All the very best dude🔥

My back and knees hurt just watching you do all of that manual work, but kudos to you for making this a DIY project. Good luck on the build!

Put down insect killer under the floor to keep the critters from getting into the structure.

So happy for all your success! Love your videos!

Can't wait to watch how this progresses! I'm hoping to build an observatory in the next 2-3 years. Have to get power on the land first. Will be great to go from Bortle 7 to 3

Great video Nico, good luck with the construction! I dream that I will be reviewing your video when I build my own observatory when I am back to the US.

SUPER impressed by the design, build and documentation of this project. The first two are challenging on their own. Filming it all in such detail is a real grand slam. Congrats on gaining several levels of DYI XP.

So inspiring !!! Eager to see the rest of the series !! Good luck !

Well done. Great plans. You have likely already thought about it but when running power, run 2x as much as you think needed (at least 3 circuits of 20 Amp if not 4), in the same trench run a cat 5 data cable, just in case, and a fishable conduit to add whatever the new thing you will want out there in the next 30 years. Easier and cheaper to do it up front than to excavate later. Have fun, be patient, lift with your legs, be careful on ladders and roofs, and Oh, yeah, clear skies.

Love it! Looking forward to the rest of this story.

Glad to hear that you get paid from your work here on YT 🤩👍 Your videos are always inspiring and well made 👌 Thats why I watched many of them many times to try to learn myself 😄🙏 Looking forward to see this series 🙂

This is awesome Nico, so glad to see everything is coming together.

Hi Nico, as ever your commentary is always informative and enjoyable, definately one of the good guys out there! Please feel free to ask any questions, it's fun and strange to see someone who is really always the expert struggling in a very open way. If you need any more constructive help for your next steps please ask, it can be very easy or hard! Plan all your cable routing up front, that'll be the frustration later if not . Keep up the channel work, great stuff! P.S. Next time don't forget to where safety socks in your crocks ;)

Love this and looking forward to more from this build series! Congrats!

Cool project! I wonder if a 12+" EPDM roof pipe flashing seal might make a good vibration-isolation bond between your pillars and the floor? Dektite makes one in a 9"-20" pipe diameter.

Congratulations, this is such an amazing project !!! I am a bit like you, this is my dream !

Once you've finished your observatory I have a suggestion for a video. At the moment I use an Askar 80PHQ and anyone who has used this scope would know why I am considering upgrading to the Askar 130PHQ. The quality of images from these quads is remarkable. The one thing that stops me doing so is changing the all-up loading on my AM5 from 7kg to almost 17kg and a search on KZfaq gets zero examples of anyone doing this. The closest I can find is a 10kg Dob. The ZWO website shows a 12kg 11" Celestron that is obviously setup for planetary imaging with no filters, focusers etc. At the moment my guiding is hovering between 0.16 and 0.45 and I don't think I'm the only person who would be interested to know what sort of effect you get when you get close to the weight limit on various mounts that have a limit of 20kg.

Hey Nico! You’re the first person who got me into astrophotography. Since then I’ve shot in Oregon, Hawaii and Mass. I’m in central MA right now. Lmk if you need any help with the observatory! I’d love to lend a hand. Happy shooting bro.

Subscribing for the observatory build - seems like a fun series!

Congratulations on beginning to make your dream a reality Nico. Important in life to have dreams and goals, this is very inspiring. Cheers Si

Very exciting project, Nico. Looking forward to your next video!!

Surely it's going to be a great observatory! Can't wait for the first light from there.

Happy for you man. Hope to be in your shoes some day. Hope the build continues to go well.

Oh nice, this is exciting! Wishing you all the best for your project 👍 I will definitely be checking the progress

Please make sure your lumber is straight and if it is pre-cut has th.e correct lenght. I was depending on my local source delivering the lumber straight and in the right size. I didn't have the tools at the time to cut my 8x8 cm frame material (about 3.5x3.5 inches). Now there is no turning back for me. Also the wood for the walls wasn't straight so I got gaps which lead me to calling my observatory white hole observatory. Good luck with your build.

Congrats!! Go Nebulae!!!

Good on ya! I can't wait for the next installments. Cheers!

Hi 👋, NebulaPhotos , I have always enjoyed your territorial, I am thinking of building a Observatory , or just a dome housing for the telescope, I have even thought about constructing something in the attic as my property is an old mill. Some point in the not too distant future. I’ve got to re-roof my roof, and in the attic, there is a big oak frame construction, that I could quite easily mount a telescope into then finding a way of sliding back the roof, food for thought, whether there’s enough money in the budget to do it, especially as my building roofline is well above the trees at the moment, part of my problem is that I live in a valley, obviously next to a river, which the mill used to be run bye, I’ll wait and see how you progress and how you do your sliding roof, good luck for the future. I’ve always been impressed with your photography and your territorials, explaining how and where are used to set up the equipment., I look forward to part 2 😂 , Phil from the moulin France.

Looking forward to completion of this project and the results it brings to your astrophotography for the channel. Good times!

Wow! That’s awesome Nico, can’t wait to see next video.

This is really timely, since I'm a few months away from starting to build my own observatory too. I had planned to use a dome, but the more I think about it, the more I think a roll-off roof might be better for me (though I have already got the dome--might look at selling it). I'll be watching your progress and hope to get some ideas!

Way to go fella! Follow your dreams and aspirations, and document them for us, especially the rocky bits!!! ;) So pleased for you ..

I glanced at the thumbnail and thought "That's one weird looking telescope on the right". Then I took a second look and said to myself "Oh. It's a cement mixer".

Yes I'm so excited for you man!! I'm itching to tear down my above ground pool to build an observatory soon

Amazing progress Nico; that concrete mix looked pretty darn good to me! Also, the thing you found in the hole was a steel snap lead, same thing you would find on a dog leash.

12:02 Looks like a hook of some kind that would probably attach to a winch or crane of some sort. It seems like there is debris in the hook that makes it appear as one big chunk, the hook is on the left side.

So far, so good. Looks real nice and I bet it will work out quite well. Good job!

This is awesome! Congrats!

Of course you have that license plate! 😄

Awesome job man. 🙌🏼

Congrats, Nico. You deserve it!

This is great to watch

Excellent start looking forward to your next videos

When my wife and I were looking for homes in Maine couple years ago, one of my undisclosed criteria was, "what Bortle is it?"

Interesting project that I will follow. Currently trying to learn the different aspects of astrophotography so your channel is a goto for me. I especially like diy stuff, like the barn door tracker video, which I will try to make an own version of. Good luck with the observatory build.