new astronomer thinking about an observatory

[luna 2011]

:)hiya all this is my 1st month in astronomy,have been thinking of an observatory but they seem to be like gold dust here in the Uk,theirs thousands of em in the USA and nice ones too.is there any way of building one at a lowish cost that wont fold up and flutter away in the british weather we have.any hints ect would be fab thaks:)

[steppenwolf]

It would help enormously if we knew your budget for this project.

[Merlin66]

I built mine from an Argos 6' x 8' tin shed. Modified the roof to run off. Used to house the 12" Lx , now has the 11" and NEQ6.

Cheap, fast and very convenient.

[Bizibilder]

Again, I modified a tin shed and now have an exellent little observatory - its lasted two rather bad (for the UK) winters with no problems. (See my sig for details and pics - you'll have to go back a bit!.)

[Gina]

That certainly seems a very economical solution I went for the deluxe self-build option. (Wonder if that was wise! ) That's why my bank balance has been trundling along almost on empty for months! As fast as it gets topped up with pension, food and other household items plus a large fraction on the observatory keep pulling it down again. My build will probably cost over a grand on timber alone by the time it's complete. I shall be doing a total-up at the end I expect. To give an idea, for a largish observatory and attached warm room with the various mod cons, think of paying out of the order of £1500. It's amazing how it all mounts up.

[Ericgraham]

Hi Luna,

You are right, there are many more DIY observatories in the USA. One reason is that building materials are cheaper (or they were when I crossed the pond). Another is that many places in the US have too few building inspectors (fingers crossed). In the wide open spaces, neighbors are less likely to complain if they can't see what you are doing.

For a long time, my 'observatories' consisted of a post in the ground (or once on the roof of my house) and a clamshell box to protect my C11 from the weather. I could be out and observing in a couple of minutes.

If you can build a shed, a roll-off-roof is not much harder.

Next time around, I plan to build a dome. There is a lot of info on the web. Interestingly, making the curved shape is not the hard part. The shutter and dome rotation present more problems, especially if you want to automate them. Perhaps the hardest part of all is keeping the weather out. I have an advantage living in the desert- it hardly ever rains

Eric

[malc-c]

Pulsar make commercial dome observatories, but you still need to build the base. Alexanders build traditional RoR observatories, but of late seem to be late delivering orders. If going commercial, expect to pay £2,000 - £4000 depending on the options and size.

Self builds are cheaper, and depending on what you want can be done cheaply. As mentioned a 6 x 8 shed from Argos, plus some fabrication and you have a basic observatory for less than £1K. Alternatively, browse through the DIY Observatory section and you'll be inspired by all the nice large self builds with warm rooms and comforts that go with it. Typically a 16' x 8' with warm room will set you back £1200 - £1700 in materials, that's half the cost of similar sized commercial products, and will require between 100 - 200 hours from breaking ground to completion and fitting out.

[Technobill]

If you can weld, I would go the modified tin shed option. A few people I know have done that. Basically you take a stock standard Tin Shed, remove the roof, add some sort of steel frame to the Walls and Roof (they are designed to hold each other ridgid, when they are not connected they need additional frame work., then add tracks and wheels.

Personoally, I can only work with wood and wanted to do it myself, so I built mine with more traditional materials.

I have details of what I did and all of the steps on my web site. This might give you a bit of an idea. But keep in mind there are as many home made designs as there are observatories :-)

Bill D

[Carbon Brush]

I went for a shed rather than dome. That way I don't advertise expensive kit to the villains. It was definitely my best astro kit spend.

The choice of tin/wood and method of roof removal and size will all be determined by your location.

Take your time choosing and that way you will hopefully avoid mistakes. See if you can look at other members build, as well as the numerous books and posts on SGL. Accept this winter will be outside, and build for next winter.

Buying a wrong scope or eyepiece is easily rememdied, you just lose some money. But the wrong type of observatory in the wrong location is more of a problem.

Hope there is something useful in there.

[Gina]

I spent many months thinking and designing my build - some would probably say too long The build is taking a long time too due to two main factors - needing to save up to buy the bits and there's only me building it. The weather hasn't been helping a lot either.

[yeti monster]

My obsy just sort of happened, if I'd have tried planning it, I would most likely never have got one...

[lukebl]

There's a huge number of options, high or low-budget. Just browse some of the threads in the DIY Observatories section here.

Here's mine which was made from a converted childs playhouse! Admittedly we had originally spent over a grand on it, but it was no longer in use by the kids, and works perfectly for me with a roll-up PVC roof. It may look a bit Heath-Robinson, but it works well, and takes less than a minute to put the roof down if it starts raining. And it's withstood all the wind and rain over the past 18 months with no ill-effect.

.

[Macavity]

I'm happy with my "Alexanders". The lead-in time problem etc. is anecdotal and unfortunate. But, for those less (physically) able, the value is excellent. Clearly GOOD product can be produced my skilled individuals.

Maybe there's a business opportunity out there? Let's face it, even adding a few internal fittings drew out all the (MALE!) neighbourhood "DIY-experts" to advise me on the error of my "gentleman physicist" ways.

Dragon's Den? Tho' when it comes to putting the Ro-Ro ROOF in place

(at only 5' 7" myself ) I'd prefer a "Peter Jones to a Theo Paphitis..."

[Helen]

Where in S Wales are you? I've just had some local carpenters put a new roof on my observatory and I think they'd now be happy to do it again. Send me a message if you want details.

Helen