Smallest imaging obsy?

[nightvision]

Been out of the Astro loop for awhile, finally got enough time to build a box for my gear and do some DS and lunar basic imaging.   I want to build a small shed-like box just enough to contain my NEQ6 and 200p.  I will be doing most of the imaging from a remote room so should only need enough space for setting up and adjustments.  I was thinking of about 2m x 2m, does that sound like enough?

Thanks, Tony.

[Astroboffin]

Hi,

I am thinking along the lines of exactly the same thing, so will look forward to your progress and any advice you get.

I am looking at a small 5x3 foot shed to store a portable pier in, and slide out on a track when needed, so the shed will be just to store the set up, I have a warm room 4m away in my garage, sectioned off 1/3 or my garage with a stud wall and, then boarded all the walls, carpeted the floor put a wall mounted heater, desk with PC monitors and a separate TV and kettle, home from home in there.

Also I have run mains, 12v, USB and scope control cable underground to where the shed will go, so I can leave it all,connected and just slide away until the next session.

In my opinion 2m x 2m should be fine, that's over 6 foot square.

Regards

AB

[nightvision]

Sounds very cozy AB!  I thought of something like that but I need to have the scope about 2.4m above the ground due to nearby buildings and trees obscuring the sky.  I was thinking of rolling off the whole shed and leaving the scope and mount aligned and in place but the height of the shed may be a problem.  Rolling off the roof should be OK but it still gets complex.

[laser_jock99]

2.4m seems rather high- are you going to build a viewing platform around this?

Have you also considered just having a permanent, outside pier? Kind of a halfway house between a full obsy and dragging out the tripod each session.  

[prusling]

I'm considering a 6' x 4'6" shed with a pent roof rising from 5'6" to 6' and front-opening double doors to permanently house my 200p or 80ED on HEQ5 on a pillar with extension. This would be used predominantly for imaging, and operated from a conservatory 5m away.

Having to set up all the kit for each session takes away some of the enjoyment at present...

With that size shed, the roof can just be lifted off for each session and bolted back on afterwards.

Initial measurements look OK although there would be little room to manoeuvre inside and visual observing would be limited so other more portable kit would need to be used for that.

[D4N]

I'm planning on building a 2'x2'x7' box to surround my setup. Top 3' will fold down to allow full ota and cw movement and all electrical gear will be held in the bottom section.

Control will be remote from the house.

Four sheets of ply and a few planks should do the trick

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[adamsp123]

I went and did this....   http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/67833-my-roll-off-obsy/, since I posted this I have moved house and the roll off shed is still going strong.

[Uranium235]

Some also use an upturned wheelie bin for the pier and mount. Keeping a 200p on the mount though.... thats going to require some space to swing it about, and you still need room to get yourself in there should you need to attend to anything. Also, I'd be a bit funny about keeping a newt outside (a bit of a spider magnet).

[nightvision]

2.4m seems rather high- are you going to build a viewing platform around this?

Yes a viewing/adjusting platform would be required for sure, if I set the mount top lower than 2.4m I block off loads of sky; garage 1m away with 2 houses and several large trees completing the sky-line .  

I think the platform only needs to be about 800mm off the ground.  With the eave at 2.4m and the apex at around 3m I won't be breaking any planning 'permitted-dev' rules, but it may look tall and a bit silly...

[nightvision]

Some really good ideas, its seems my need to go high stops me from doing one the simple of the compact designs proposed above... more thinking ....  .

Would do a Pete design for sure if I could find a better location.

Spiders I have loads of!!  

[Earl]

6 * 6 is doable i think Coco has a very tight obsy and has used a quatro 8inch in it, not 100 percent on the details, getting in to sort pa and the such can be quiet a challenge and mount placement needs to take this into account

[Bubbles82]

I built my pier too high and it's only 1.3high, I thought it would be better to be able to see over my garage fence and some trees in a neighbours garden. I now realise in reality that with the mount on the post it's about 1.9 and building my obsy is now going to require me to raise the whole thing up to allow clearance for the roll off roof and that most objects are a lot higher in the sky in peak astro season and the need to see over some of the obstructions is really unnecessary. Ultimately it's what you think is best and what you want but I would urge you to be 100% before you start to build anything because moving or changing things once there together is never as easy as it seems. This was my original plan in the attached photo, I had built this all when I then realised that I wanted to leave the mount on and so I thought I would just make the box taller on top which then would have taken the top of the box to level with the eaves of the shed. Again this seemed simple till I realised that to remove the box it would require me to stand on some steps to lift it up over the mount every time above the shed height when I wanted to use the mount. This is really impractical and dangerous and I'd already ran all the cables for power and comms and they were buried in the cement so had to be cut to remove most of them wasting lots of time and money. Good luck with you build and take some time and think of everything[emoji3]

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[Earl]

Mayve a roll of guardhouse idea?

[Astroboffin]

I'm considering a 6' x 4'6" shed with a pent roof rising from 5'6" to 6' and front-opening double doors to permanently house my 200p or 80ED on HEQ5 on a pillar with extension. This would be used predominantly for imaging, and operated from a conservatory 5m away.

Having to set up all the kit for each session takes away some of the enjoyment at present...

With that size shed, the roof can just be lifted off for each session and bolted back on afterwards.

Initial measurements look OK although there would be little room to manoeuvre inside and visual observing would be limited so other more portable kit would need to be used for that.

I totally agree with this, I find that setting up and taking down, does take away some of the enjoyment, also I find that it stops me going out at all sometimes, which is a real shame, good idea to just lift the roof on and off, should not be too much weight I it, and if it was heavy you could always use a plastic roof,,replace the wood with some sort of polycarbonate roof,,like on some conservatories, painted black on the inside.

AB

[Astroboffin]

Mayve a roll of guardhouse idea?

Yes the small 3x2 sentry box sheds, I looked at those....

It would also be quite easy to make the top half removable, so visual use would be possible, or of course slide the whole thing back on some sort of rails.

AB

[fondofchips]

This is what a 200P looks like in a 8' x 8' viewing room -

The 2.4 metre height will be OK, also take into consideration any local LP coming from street lights and your neighbours security lights. 

I had to add some wall extensions to cut out street lights after a neighbour had some Leylandii trees lopped down -

Now I have to make a board for the opposite side as another street light is lighting up these extension boards.

I did a trial of tall posts and some tarpaulin sheet to work out how high my obsy walls needed to be, setting up my scope behind it to be sure that I would not lose any targets that were low on the horizon.

Bubbles82 is spot on with planning ahead, you really need to plan the whole construction so that there are no time consuming and possibly expensive errors.

Good luck with your build.

Clear skies.

Fondofchips.

[astrovirus]

Here is what i build to accomodate a similar setup. This is as small as you may get it.

LOMO; a Balcony Micro Observatory

[prusling]

I'm considering a 6' x 4'6" shed with a pent roof rising from 5'6" to 6' and front-opening double doors to permanently house my 200p or 80ED on HEQ5 on a pillar with extension. This would be used predominantly for imaging, and operated from a conservatory 5m away.

Having to set up all the kit for each session takes away some of the enjoyment at present...

With that size shed, the roof can just be lifted off for each session and bolted back on afterwards.

Initial measurements look OK although there would be little room to manoeuvre inside and visual observing would be limited so other more portable kit would need to be used for that.

Finally bit the bullet and got me one of these!

I went for the spec and dimensions above, from Broomheads Sheds, with sides bolted together for possible future removal/relocation, and hinges bolted through for security.  Their build quality and customer service is excellent and I’d recommend them.

Since working out the necessary shed measurements to accommodate either a 200p or ED80 on my HEQ5, I sold the 200p and bought a 6” Altair Astro RC as a partner for the ED80 for various reasons including its smaller size.  However, my goal was still to achieve a permanent setup and minimise prep time so when a set of guide rings came up on astrobuysell I bought them to piggy-back the ED80 on the RC both for imaging in its own right and for guiding the RC (not sure whether vice versa would be feasible?). This added a fair bit of weight and the HEQ5 is probably now at its limit, and it also added a fair bit of size  and I was not confident that the shed would accommodate it – fortunately it just fits, although not without more central positioning of the RC on its dovetail which will necessitate a dovetail weight for balancing.

The only drawback I’ve encountered so far is that the well-made roof is a 2 person lift which makes overnight imaging a challenge if the clouds roll in – my wife would not be best pleased to be woken in the early hours to help me put the roof on!  So, as Astroboffin suggests, I’ll need to make up a more lightweight roof although that should be quite easy/inexpensive to DIY using PVC sheets.  I’ll keep the heavy one for severe weather.

It’s not had first light yet and any comments or hints and tips to finish it off would be much appreciated!

Here are a couple of pics – note the conkers which I hope will ward off the creepy crawlies!

[laser_jock99]

Nice- will the conkers work?

[prusling]

Nice- will the conkers work?

So far, so good! I'd read that lemon Pledge is good also but can't track it down anywhere...

[ollypenrice]

2M square is way bigger than you need for an imaging rig to be controlled from elsewhere. I've nearly finished a robotic one which is 1.6M square and has a floor to ceiling height of 1.37M with a tad more height externally because of the slight tilt on the galvanized roof. Going for roll off was pretty much necessary because this will be run remotely but if you are on site then a tilt-open roof would save space.

My project: http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/254597-small-robotic-shed-stage-two/

Pruslings is a nice tight solution as well!

Olly

[nameunknown]

Small obsy's are neat, but perhaps in the long term a bad idea.

P

[Scott]

Mine is a 1350X1350 (4'6"x4'6") Roll off shed. It serves me well as I sit in a heated shed 15-20mtrs away.

[D4N]

Mine is 1.2m x 0.6m with a tilt open roof and the wife still thinks it is too big [emoji19]

/Dan

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[nameunknown]

Mine is a 1350X1350 (4'6"x4'6") Roll off shed. It serves me well as I sit in a heated shed 15-20mtrs away.

.two sheds then. Or perhaps you have more sheds

P