To insulate or not to ......

Hey
Recently finished of a shed for the scope and was wondering should i insulate the shed? I did notice some condensation on the pillar
one morning but i think this was because of the hole in the floor
around the pillar. How much effort should i put into insulating the shed? Should i use aeroboard or fibre-glass insulation?


Thanks
Mike

Is the shed made from wood or metal Mike? Go for aerobord because is it waterproof. Any moisture that gets in between it and the inside roof space will trickle down to the wall edge and fall away. Fiberglass is not as good.

Seanie.

Hey Seanie
Its a timber house. I guess also that i need to block up
the hole around the pier and seal up any weak areas.
Should i be maintaining a small bit of heat in the shed for the
scope or is it fine once i keep dampness to a minimum?

I have attached a picture of the shed during construction.

I would prefer to use aeroboard (less itchy first of all) but also
less dusty.

Thanks
Mike

Many congrats Mike on building the observatory. You've made a good decision there and will enjoy the comforts it brings.
In terms of insulation, I didn't have any insulation in my timber shed observatory and it was pretty ok. However it did have good ventilation. This will happen easier in a roll-off-roof shed than in a fiberglass observatory like I have now.
The insulation will help keep the observatory a couple of degrees warmer than the outside air and so I would expect it to assist in keeping the observatory moisture-free. If it were me, I would add a small amount of aeroboard insulation just to be on the safe side.

Hi Mike,
I built a fibreglass observatory a few years back and found that condensation is something you're gonna have to contend with, I found that condensation seemed to happen in the sunrise hours of the morning, the equipment in the dome has chilled during the night and when the sun comes up, the air heats and so you get condensation in the dome.
I put in a low power thermostatically and timed controlled heater that's set to come on if below a certain temperature between the hours of 3am and 9am, this way the inside of the dome doenst get cold compared to the sunrise temperatures and dew is no longer an issue.
Heating is something I said I'd never do but its either that or have the scope covered in dew every cold morning, its not so much heating anyway, its more like preventing the inside of the dome getting too cold during the early hours of the morning. I tried a dehumidifier but it wasn't doing the job.
It doesnt interfere with observing as by the next evening, any heat has dissapeated hours earlier and I can turn it off if I'm observing well into the early hours.
If you can use insulation to prevent the inside of the observatory getting colder then ambient air temperatures, then you'll prevent condensation, but with no heating you might want to keep an eye on the insulation itself so it doesnt become damp, if it does you could end up with mould and rot in the wood.
Abit of trial and error is what its gonna take to find out. Thats a fine sized observatory, looks great, let us know how it turns out. What scope are you putting in there.?

Thanks lads
I will be putting an Orion SPX 250 F4.8 on an Atlas EQ6. Plenty
of room alright. I will post some photos when its complete.
I noticed from looking around at tonnes of different sheds that not alot if any had insulation thats why i was curious, it seemed that there was not much risk to the scope optics. I was concerned myself about the condensation i saw with regards to the electronics.
I will definitely take the preventative route and put some aeroboard on the walls and see what i can do with the hole in the floor. Hopefully that will be enough but will consider the heater later as i hadn't planned on permanent power to the observatory.

Thanks again
Mike