The 'Fitzroy' observatory (shed)

[fwm891]

Hi, I have a run-off roofed shed built sometime ago to house a Celestron C11. I've now re-furbiished it for my 8-inch f4 Imaging Newtonian set-up.

Essentially its in two parts: a telescope area and an 'office'/store.

The telescope sits on an NEQ6 Pro Synscan mount, which in turn is mounted on a homemade welded tripod/pier (neither one nor the other). Cables run between each area via two plumbers waste pipes (i no longer trip over cables in the dark - just plumbers waste pipes!).

The run-off roof runs on rubber casters which are kept in line by lengths of a popular shelving support system turned upside down acting as rails. To take the roof right away from the telescope I clip two frames onto the end of the shed with similar tracks on top as I couldn't have (not allowed) perminent run-off frames.

The 'office' has a seat, desk space and plenty of power sockets to run my laptop, additional monitors and other bits of kit (that need sorting out). Once set-up I can drop the heavy curtain across the doorway keeping out the worst of the cold on winter nights. I also have a heater but its only been used a couple of times. See photos:)

[Gina]

Interesting - thank you for posting

[MoonStarer]

Interesting pier-***-tripod, always fascinating to see the different ideas people come up with.

Can I ask what the g-cramps on the mount are for?

Andy

[fwm891]

MoonStarer...

I find 'G' clamps to be the best form of balance weights out. You can turn/rotate them to almost any position. I find I'm changing the loading on my scope quite a lot depending on the camera body used and whether I'm using my DSLR chiller.

There's a small right-angled ali bracket on the side of my saddle plate and I attach the clamps there making it easy to get things precisely balanced and reduce the motor loading...

[ollypenrice]

Looks great! I have made a couple of 'tri-piers' as well, viz; http://ollypenrice.smugmug.com/Other/Takahashi-EM200TEC140/IMG0935/850633827_iA2is-X3.jpg

Olly

[fwm891]

Olly - Nice set-up the complete run -off shed certainly improves access around the scope. My obsy was originally built to house an 11 gps scope which sat much higher on the 'tri-pier' but I had to put the whole thing on concrete blocks to raise the scope when I changed to the current set-up. The obsy has had a clean since the photos were taken (it needed it...)!

[Macavity]

Yes I'm a "tri-pier" (good term for it, Olly) man too! With space at a premium and a degree of uncertainty in positioning a pier, I hedged my bets. Such things can be pleasingly stable though... Not sure if anyone has ever tried to "retrofit" a Pillar. At some future stage, I might require the assistance of a "Man plus road-drill"?

[fwm891]

Any suggestions please - I need to insulate the aluminium RoR section (see photo's) to reduce the levels of condensation and add some deadening to the acoustics. Opening and closing this can be quite noisy at 3:30 in the morning and I don't want to upset the neighbours!

Light weight and no more than 20 mm thick would be ideal...

[opticalpath]

Hi Francis. I haven't tried this but I wonder if it would be worth painting the inside with some kind of rubberised paint. Years ago I was recommended to paint this stuff on the inside surface of some big hi-fi speaker enclosures, to dampen resonance in the panels. It might help to reduce noise in your roof .... and perhaps even provide a little insulation.

Adrian