Building a dome support shed, what building height ?

Alt-az will certainly keep it simpler. However, it may be prudent to try and allow for the wedge also.

Do you have the wedge at the mo?

One option would be to not make a pier at all for now and experiment with heights using the tripod.

That's a good plan - the Peir-Tech pier is very expensive (but I'd imagine worth it for the utility value).

Dave

There must be a metal workshop near by who'll make up a pier for a few hundred euros,

If you put the scope on a tripod (+dew shield+wedge if you have one) and get a measuring tape and measures its height, add a few inches and you'll have the minimum height at the top of dome.
As the dome is fairly circular, subtract half the diameter of the dome from this height and you'll discover the minimum height of the walls. I'd add on a foot or so for good measure.
I'd imagine you'll still be able to see the horizon.

Michal, no, I don't have a wedge. I realize that next to its benefits its negative is that I would have to do more acrobatics. As healthy as that may be I am trying to avoid doing acrobatics. Lazy type you know.
And I like to put some self imposed limits on the hobby. And this is one. No wedge.

have fun!

Jouke

acrobatics :lol: for visual use I found it to be a slight advantage as the tube is placed far away from the pier when looking towards the south, I don't look north too often.
The real problem is stability, which isn't a problem in a dome.
If you are not doing photography, the cost of the wedge does not make it worth the effort.

Jouke --

I wouldn't worry too much about the horizon. With Ireland's damp skies, any light pollution that you have will result in horrible extinction anywhere near the horizon. Even without that, the seeing is going to turn everything down there into scintillating blobs.

Personally, I try to observe mostly above 30°, and almost never go below 10° (out of 337 recorded observations, 9 were below 15° and only 3 were below 10°). So I think a design with a 10° or 15° horizon would be fine.

-- Jeff.