laser_jock99

Lets hope your neighbours don't a mind your scope peering over their houses!

I got round the need for having lower side walls by parking the scope in the 'upside down' position- I think I'm unique in doing this!

I used plastic coated, galvanised steel cladding on my obsy build- dark green to blend into the landscape. It seems to have weathered the storms okay and to be honest looks as good now as the day we put it up- no rust or detoioration to the finish. I'm in the process of planning another shed with same material. Timber frame Dark green, sheet metal walls fitted to frame. Finshed off the two visible sides in waney edge pine cladding.

Alternativley- don't use U-channel at all. Use outward facing L-section. No problems with rain/leaves/snow/ice. You can see the L-section I used in this photo

Maybe- but I'm personnaly more inclined towards imaging rather than visual.

My pier/EQ6 live outside under gardern BBQ covers- survived about 4 years of Welsh Mountain weather so far (and it's pretty harsh at times!!)

Maybe my 8" F4 Newt is a good compromise scope- fast enough for imaging and a medium visual FOV. I could always add a barlow for planets.

This company in Rugby made both my steel tube piers from stock lengths of tube https://www.charleswatts.co.uk/ The price was much less than some of the comercial piers availble. I also bought a of lot the hardware (e.g. 1m long M18 threaded bar to sink into the concrete) for my obsy project here. Another Rugby company I found usefull for the concreting operations at my observatory was Lemon Groundworks- good for re-bar etc. https://www.lemon-gs.co.uk/contacts My steel tube pier bolted to a block of concrete.

Had a bit of kit from Nevada this week- none of it really astro related (although it is destined from my obsy/radio shack!). A Scanking Discone antenna and an antenna tuner amongst other things. Quote

Mine cost about £90 for the materials (6 foot long piece of 9" diameter tube) and a few beers for the welding.

An outside pier is a good start - mine is a 6" diameter steel tube bolted to a concrete block. When not in use - I remove the scope and cover in BBQ type covers.

A good, clear southern horizon is the main requirement.

I found it fairly easy to 'knock up' my obsy- don't think I had aything other than basic skeches and a few ideas in my mind. The main focus was efficient use materials. For example- the wood beams came in 3m lengths, so the obsy & deck is 3m x 6m! Less cutting, lees waste. The steel wall panels and roof panels were 1m wide x 2.5m- a perfect fit for my 3m x 3m frame..... You might want to consider siting the secondary pier outside? My so called 'widefield pier'. I use this for small scopes and camera lens work. Good for times when I don't want 'fire up' the main obsy

.....or it's summer time!!

The weather has been disapointing- that's why it's important to have interests other than astronomy that aren't so weather dependant. Dark & raining? Spin some vinyl !!!!!

That was impressive!

Not sure I understand your problem. The normal 'cure' to extend the point of focus outwards beyond the current travel of the focusser is to move the primary mirror closer to the secondary (i.e. shorten the the tube).

I don't recall having this issue- although I use mainly the Baader MkIII Coma Corrector which is a much shorter device than the aplanatic CC. You could always move the primary up the tube say 10mm by taking a slice off the bottom end!

The long dovetail is pretty much a must have. You'll also notice in my photo a short ED80 refractor top mounted on the Newt. The extra mass can be used to offset the weight of the camera somewhat. Balance never needs to be perferct though- a slight load is better for tracking stabilty I understand.

LOL. The standard Skywatcher EQ6 is capable of an ED120- a positively lightweight scope in fact! I've been running a 35kg 12" Newtonian on an EQ6 for years. It does 600 second guided subs routinely. An EQ6 will therefore handle the combined weight of an ED120 (6.5Kg) & Mak180 (7.5Kg) with ease.

A 120 mm frac can do longer FL views something that a 70 mm can't.......

Great rigs & pictures- keep them coming! Since I'm being held to ransom by Photobucket I'll re-post my scopes from Flikr 12" Revelation Astro F4 Newtonian 6" GSO F4 Newtonian (with Starwave 80ED refractor piggy backing)

Very professional looking pier. Nice!

Have you seen the price of a tin of Hammerite- powder coat for £30 is probably cheaper!!