Rusted

And four pairs of increasingly stronger reading glasses to find the right pair of reading glasses to be able to read the list. Nobody needs a list if they have a wife to remind you exactly how much time you have left to complete your allotted tasks.

All that John said and welcome. A 10" is still a very powerful instrument even by today's standards. I own two different Fullerscopes mountings. The MkIII and the MkIV. Medium and Heavy duty. Mountings are the metalwork with shafts which support the telescope and allows it to point around the sky. Fullerscopes mountings are simple and solid but the drives [motor and gears] are usually rather basic. They were mostly made back in the 1970s and 1980s. The optics [mirrors and lenses] are well respected. Fullerscopes produced simple B&W catalogues. Which are handy for identifying the instruments and accessories. If you can post some pictures here we can tell you a lot more about what you have.

"But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?"

Work lights? What will they think of next?

Apologies, Kev. I got all wound up at the mere idea of a south facing window. I've been tilting [at] them for decades at home and work! Rocinante is sick of them too! A louver of horizontal slats would still let you see the scope. No need for the usual sloping slats because the obs. walls will give shade with a low sun.

A south facing window is a heat magnet in sunshine and completely intolerable to sit there. That's why people detest being in greenhouses and conservatories without serious shade. Or any work or office space anywhere near a sunny window. You can't hang a monitor from a window. Nor fit shelves or working surfaces there. The window is a waste of vital space and a security risk. IMHO. Once the sun gets though the glass it is far too late. The heat is in and cannot be undone. The sun is blindingly bright and reflects off everything. It spoils books and charts and equipment where the sun can reach. Sunshine makes using any computer screen a nightmare even if you deliberately wear black clothing. Site your desk so you can see what needs to be seen without turning. Never with your back to the entrance nor the telescope. Make sure you aren't blocked from accessing the entire space in the pitch dark. Power cut? You need a torch which is returned to its allotted space every single time it gets used. An observatory and warm[er] room is not a 'power 'office to impress the underlings. It's an active workshop. Which means you need desk space/working surface for far more than just the computer/keyboard/laptop or screen. It's a warm[er] room where you'll want sit down in good light to work on or handle smaller equipment or just keep it from dewing. I thought it would be so simple to furnish an observatory. Until I actually tried it.

Yes I'm familiar with drag chain conduits from CNC machines. No idea what cables they had hidden inside the protective shield. Certainly quite a bit posher than pulling mains plugs every time. Suits you, Sir!

Neat! What was your method of indexing the holes around the circles? Did you use a hole saw for the larger ones? I forgot to mention I saw an add for a CF tube on U.K. Astronomy Buy & Sell in Reading.

With so many colour options I could spend years just trying to make a decision. It beats cloud watching. Cables, or flex, and lots of movement are not a marriage made in heaven. I have mains LED bulbs overhead in my dome and have to stop and unplug them all the time. I've tried long and short runs and neither works without a hollow PA shaft. The very long linear movement of an ROR might be much simpler running on battery LEDs. With the battery in the moving roof along with the lights they power. Rechargeable batteries could be "topped" up when the roof [or dome] is not in use?

A louvered panel will block direct sunlight while allowing air movement. It need not be in direct contact with the building. A similar arrangement could be suspended over a "hot" roof if it proved necessary. A grid of crossed slats [with halving joints] will cast a shadow without adding massive weight. Conifers or dense shrubs in moveable pots will cast shade in summer. A trolley, or sack truck, would allow rapid withdrawl if the shrubbery blocks the view.

It's always good to be prepared. I've got doors too. Ever so carefully planed they were. Now they're blocked by the handrails of the warehouse stepladder and the open wooden hatch. Circuses are crying out for my skills as a contortionist.

Space saving partition door? Cat flap? What about a portcullis? Up and over garage door? Plastic strip warehouse door [for the forklift?] ?‍♂️ For when you next upgrade your mounting?

And, it gets worse when you only think you're finished. Wait until you have to fit a shower tray and plumbing. Just for the condensation pouring off the mounting. You could always store it in a collection tank. Then water your garden in next year's drought.

I like his unshakeable optimism. Our lunar eclipse meant thick cloud and snow. The dome looks like an iced bun and the snow ploughs are plying their trade. ⛄ No sign of the bloody red wolf we were promised. At least not so far.. Observatories are never finished. They just grow older. Like their owners.

I looked at the phenolic tubes, too, but there was no weight saving over what I had. Though they do make a nice, hard and stiff tube. Not cheap though. Only the foam cored CF tubes are a bit lighter but even more expensive! I need a 12" Ø tube myself for my 10" f/8 planetary Newt. After wasting a year, or two, on building abject failures I have obtained a 30cm x 2m steel, ventilation duct. Another roundtoit, I'm afraid.

Tubes? One arrangement is to saw several supporting disks in half, then remove an inch across the middle for a batten so that they can be knocked out. The tube is split lengthways with 1" missing and a batten between each long cut to resurrect the tube. It can all be held together with ratchet straps until you can wrap it with poly. The entire mould can be collapsed inwards. None of this is remotely easy! You don't need a router to make circles. I've cut 24" disks of 3/4" ply or 3&4" Formica covered chipboard by hand using a coping saw and fretsaw. I've made GRP tubes over a male mould and the results were cosmetically hideous. The pretty side wants to be on the outside. Making a pretty female mould is tedious and very demanding. You can fiberglass over the cardboard tube. Again you have the rough side out. A tube can be laminated inside by rolling the wetted out matt/cloth over a pipe and unrolling it inside the tube as it is gently rotated. Wet glass mat wants to disintegrate so it could be very messy and very expensive! Best done in split, half cylinders. Sanding GRP is a horrible and unhealthy job. I did a kit car body once. Never again! CF is worse! Do not leave cardboard tube lying down. It will go oval before you know it. Stand it on end. DO IT NOW! Mine wouldn't go round again even when I forced 3/4" plywood rings into it. My favourite tube is laminated birch marine/aircraft ply. It can be costly unless you can source affordable full sheets. Usually 5'x5' in Olde Money. Boat and canoe builders might be able to help. Or not. I used 2 layers of 1.5mm but three layers would have been better in a larger tube. Preferably with precision cut, birch ply baffle as supporting rings. All tubes of the same strength weigh much the same whatever you make them out of. Steel, Ally, GRP, CF, resin rolled paper, or steel. Carbon fiber is only light if you make it thin enough or a sandwich over foam. Then it's brittle and vulnerable without great expertise. I've compared lots of material over the years. Only a truss is lighter because it has more air in it. Provided you make the rings thin enough.

Even if the rain doesn't get blown in, fine snow almost certainly will. Insects are impossible to exclude. Wasps like a roof over their nest.

I thought you meant six pack. Which is either an awful waste of the amber nectar. Or unduly pessimistic about the chances of hitting the spot.

It is not beyond the wit of man to come up with alternatives to level, exposed rails. A rather serious pivot could hinge the rails downwards when the roof is closed. Instead of twin "mill races" you get a self cleaning pair of "rat runs."

I had no idea my comment would be taken seriously. I think I was teasing because Kev was so close to completion. "You don't want to do it like that," sort of style. Since we are <cough> pushing boundaries: What about making a giant drawer slide? Has it ever been done?

Amazing! But I still think I would have put the rails on top and had the wheels pointing "upwards."

More worrying is that the Brewery seems somewhat larger than the observatory. Do we detect a conflict in priorities? Or was the brewery just practice for the real thing? "No, that's not a brewery, Dear. It's my warm room!"

I went entirely for stainless steel nuts, washers and hex socket head bolts bought from a specialist supplier with a huge range. Stainless steel can weld itself to itself but I haven't had any problems dismantling so far. The usual bubble pack flashing won't last a week before rusting. The few wood screws I used were Climate Torx. I just wish they'd monitor socket head hardness as it seem to vary enormously. And I do use good quality drivers in a rechargeable drill/driver with appropriate torque settings. You only want to do this once so why cut corners?

Neat workmanship, Mr Kev.

Nice job but I agree with others here. Lose the tripod and the block and tackle. Or, you'll spend the rest of your life untangling cord. Been there, done that, much too often.