Dave's Observatory

Folks - here's some images of the observatory in progress:

THis is the basic frame for the walls (3 of them). The damp-proof membrane is fixed with tacks.



This is the frame from the other side - panelled and painted



This is one of the four wheels. I think I may need to get bigger ones, but we'll see...



This is the roof from the front - the lack of a cross-member is to give me the clearance height I need. But this meant careful design of the roof so it was still rigid.



Here's the roof from the side. The back is to the right. With the DPM fitted, some support slats for the felt fixed, its pretty stable.



Once I have the roof felted, I'll fix the three walls and roof together then desgign, build and fit a front end.

Any suggestions for a name would be welcome.

Cheers

Dave McD

That looks pretty cool, well done, I see your d.i.y. skills are pretty good.
So it looks like the whole observatory moves on wheels, does the door have to be very big to move the observatory away from the scope?

Interesting Dave. It certainly looks well. I had yet another think about mine and I will go with something similar. We've a spare shed in the back garden so i might as well take the floor out and stick a few wheels under it. Something cheap-'n'-cheerful will do fine for the moment. Certainly provides me food for thought.
Thanks for posting the pics - very useful.

Brian - I haven't really though too much about the doors yet but they will have to extend to the apex of the roof pretty much, so they'll be an odd shape.

The biggest issue I had was figuring out the size of the shed. With the OTA fully mounted and in a horizontal position, I needed 2 meters. Width wise, only only needed about 1.7m. I started off building to those dimensions but when I had one wall done, I realised that this thing was going to look like a tower. And I was then worried about wind blowing it over. So I turned the design on its side - the roof is now bigger of course but I was fine for materials.

As far as DIY skills go, I'm still learning and still making mistakes :oops: I think the wheels will need a rethink but I'll try them as they are.

Michael - the shed idea sounds fine. And anything that makes observing that bit easier is a good thing.

And as a general point, the reason I'm doing this is to avoid polar aligning every session . A 'warm' room isn;t really a consideration for me as I'm not doing visual observing, just imaging. So once I roll off the shed, I retire to the warmth of the study and work from there.

Certainly, this design will not suit everyone but I think it suits me. And its cost me about 300 quid which isn't bad. Its the time that's a major pain - about 4 full days so far and at least a couple more to go.

Cheers

Dave

Its the time that's a major pain - about 4 full days so far and at least a couple more to go.
Cheers
Dave

Thats not bad time there Dave.
All we need now is the date for your star-B-Q to christen it
Bill.

I'd hope to have it finished over the coming weekend - famous last words... :roll:

The Celbridge Star-B-Q - now that would be something. If the observatory doesn't work out, we'd have plenty of fuel :lol:

Cheers

Dave McD