Helena Cochrane’s Cozy Observatory Den (Observatory Tours #1)

Hey everyone, Nico from Nebula Photos here and  this is the start of a new series on my channel   called "observatory tours." I am here with my  friend Helena from Helena's Astrophotography   and she has this awesome blue observatory  in her backyard so I thought it'd be a great   chance to start off this new video series with  Helena and have her tell us a little bit about   her observatory. So tell us how this observatory  came to be? (Helena) so i used to watch when i was   little when i was in primary school a program  on CBCC which is a British television show   called 'The Dengineers' and i used to watch it  every day before going to school and i used to say   to my mum how cool would it be if they could come  and build me a den in the garden and mum was like   trying to calm me down and she was like you know  what no like it might never happen but apply so i   applied i was really over excited about it didn't  think anything of it though and i did hear back   from them and i got through like a long interview  process and cut a long story short they came and   built it in the garden and it not only gave me the  experience of the den but also working on a film   set and working with the team and i honestly think  that that's what sparked my love for film as well   so it was an all-around awesome opportunity it's  been a while now i think they came when i was 12   and i'm now 17 so it's withstood a lot of weather  scottish weather so i'm really pleased that it's   still here with us. (Nico) awesome and and  you made it sort of part of your whole uh   identity on youtube it's part of your logo so did  was that something natural that the observatory   would be such a big part of the story. (Helena)  absolutely like as you see like it kind of   incorporated its way slowly into the logo and  it's definitely part of me i couldn't imagine the   channel without it it's not only like a working  space but it's also a film space like i use a   lot of the backgrounds in it to film as you'll  see in my videos i use it as a chill out space   it's just really a really cool all-rounder i love  being in it and i couldn't imagine life without it   it actually makes me sad thinking about when  i'm going to uni when i won't have it it's   really part of me in the channel now yeah right  and so when you first got it when you were 12   how were you using it was were you  already into astrophotography then or   so i didn't even know astrophotography existed at  that point and i only had a Celestron first scope   so i sat up in the windowsill with my Celestion  and looked at the craters of the moon and that's   kind of how i got into visual astronomy but it  wasn't really anything serious and with the den   they really luckily provided me with a sky  watcher 10 inch Dobsorian which is one of my   favorite visual scopes to this day and i started  looking at like Jupiter and Saturn and the blood   moon was oh my god my favorite event with that  telescope and that really got me into it but i saw   these objects and i was like this is really cool  this is great but i want like a memory of it i   want to be able to take photos and i don't think i  even knew the term astrophotography at that point   i think i googled something like how it would take  pictures of space or taken for it was his face   and astrophotography came up so really all in all  this sparked everything and it started everything   for me when you look at it like that in the long  run. (Nico) tell us a little bit about the design   because i can see there's two different sort  of sections to it here (Helena) so the smaller   section on the bottom is kind of a workspace  it's got the star chart in it which you'll see   and it's got the desk where i kind of plan  imaging sessions i can sit and chat to the camera   as well the top section is where like a  telescope would go but i also use it now   newly as an interview space it stores the 10  inch Dobsonian unfortunately it still turns   around it still spins but unfortunately due to  the weather the dome doesn't actually itself   open but we are looking to get this fixed in  the future so pretending it's all fixed in a   working order a telescope would be standing on  the top decking and i'd have the the windows   open and i'd be moving it about and observing  the night sky yeah (Nico) nice i heard you call   it a den a number of times is that sort of like  a a word here for like a shed or what does that   mean (Helena) well i call it den because they the  program that i was on de engineers called a den   so like they like go out and make these dens so  i just referred to it as a den and whenever i   say den people were like what but um yeah i  just call it a den but as it's i think they   called it on the program the observatory den so  i just referred it as the day (Nico) cool and um   you were telling me there's uh there's been some  issues with it over the years and there's been   improvements made but still improvements more  to make so explain some of the history of   problems you've had with it and how you've gone  about fixing them (Helena) so there used to be   i think you'll see probably in like past videos  there it used to be like paint splattered planets   on the front it looked ace absolutely loved that  design but unfortunately because it was wooden   the mold got in and the water got in and it  started molding really quickly and it wasn't   good and i was like i can't keep equipment in here  it's not going to be safe so they actually really   kindly came back and fixed that issue they um like  coated it in this plastic sheeting that you see   here absolutely love the color i think it looks  ace and that was kind of the first problem solved   they were going to come and fix the dome that  was going to be the second thing but coveted   and this was around 2019 so unfortunately  haven't been able to make a return trip   but yeah i think it was really just the weather it  sealed its shot with we had a really bad winter i   remember in 2019 it was really cold and really  frosty and it got battered with the weather i   mean it's really good that it's still standing  here today so the dome still spins but it doesn't   open but that is not permanent we're definitely  gonna get that fixed in the future (Nico) this   is a traditional design with the the dome which  only gives you like a small section at a time uh   towards the night sky would you ever consider a  roll-off observatory or do you think the wind in   scotland would be too much for that (Helena) so  i think a roll-off observatory would be really   good i think if they use the securing factors  that they've got now it would work really well   like it would hold off against the wind really  well because we've got bolts currently on it that   go all the way around and you like kind of put  them in and take them out whenever you're rolling   it around so i think that would work really well  for a roll-off observatory obviously if i was   using it as a normal observatory having to move  it currently with the little window it's quite   difficult you risk it in the window in the frame  and i'd also probably position it in a different   place in the garden because when they built it  i didn't actually think about that like i wasn't   thinking about that at all in astrophotography i  didn't know polaris existed like for example so   i'd probably move it to a more central position in  the garden. (Nico) so i'm back in the US and first   off thank you Helena for being so open to sharing  about your whole journey with your observatory i   found it very illuminating to hear about the whole  history and what you do differently in hindsight   while i've been editing this video i've been  thinking about my motivation for starting this   new series on people's backyard observatories and  i have to admit it's for somewhat selfish reasons   it's a personal dream of mine to design  and build my own custom observatory   and i'm a pretty slow person so i'm giving myself  a timeline of let's say five years about to do   this at the moment i'm at square one i don't  even own any land to put an observatory on but   i thought you know there's no better time than the  present to start thinking through what i actually   want in an observatory and i think a great way of  doing that is to tour as many of them as possible   and hear about what people like what they do  differently and incorporate that into my plans and   so with each video i'm going to end by listing a  few personal takeaways so for Helena's observatory   my first takeaway was that having at least two  spaces within the observatory was a feature   i definitely want i know a simpler design  would be just a single room and sometimes   simple is good but for me i think having one  space which has a desk and the storage space it's   crucial for keeping the space with the actual  main telescope nice and clean and uncluttered   and my second takeaway was there are definite  trade-offs with going custom i mean i've always   thought i wanted to go with a custom observatory  which means probably mostly making it out of wood   rather than you know one of the off-the-shelf  kinds of fiberglass or plastic observatories   you can buy but after hearing about  Helena's issues with rot and mold   i think i have to be pretty careful with a custom  design because i mean weather issues can be a big   problem and the last takeaway i had was to do  with building in flexibility into the design   because as Helena pointed out her observatory was  really designed with visual observation you know   at the eyepiece being the primary activity and so  to make her observatory ideal for astrophotography   would now be a pretty big overhaul there are a few  issues um one it's not in the right place in the   yard for polar alignment that could be overcome  maybe with drift alignment but two the telescope   space is actually on a second floor with no pier  and then as Helena has said the window opening to   the sky has to be manually moved around so none of  these are a big deal if you're observing visually   like with that 10 inch sky watcher Dobsonian but  with photography those things make it a lot harder   so that's why Helena stores her astrophotography  rig on the first floor of the observatory   but actually brings it out of the observatory  to the yard for taking photos well that's it   for this one hope everyone is enjoying the  start of the summer and this rare planetary   alignment this weekend until next time this has  been Nico Carver of Nebula Photos. Clear skies!

Channel: Nebula Photos

Views: 47,962

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Id: ileMKD8PPAI

Length: 9min 38sec (578 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 24 2022