Obsy: First obstacle

[vincentnm]

Dear All,

Moved to a new home last week. Decent sized garden. Have started planning a roll-off obsy. Hit the first road block- permission from the Home Ministry. Read below and keep the tips and sympathies coming in.

I am worried about loosing space in the garden as well as loss of property value due to an ugly building . There will also be objection from the neighbours which will come after you have finished building it, leading to demolishing it. In this country people can object to things even if it is something that is allowed, and the council will listen to them.

Put your telescope in the loft. You must have seen that the loft is insulated with insulating material so there is no heat transfer from below. If you want you can insulate further to avoid further thermal interference.

The garden is small, adding a building is going to make it smaller and ugly. That building will be make the garden look ugly and definitely will have negative impact on property value. There will be a blocked view from the living room and no buyer will buy such a property not to mention our enjoyment of the garden from the lounge. If there was no other option then we could have thought about it. But there could be other options.

Call a builder and explore the option putting the telescope in the loft, if you want you can do it on both sides of the loft which will give you larger coverage, add more insulation to stop heat.

We don't have a 100 ft garden, currently the right corner is so close to the house. Please explore loft option, please don't do anything in haste.

Everyone will be unhappy loosing space in the garden.

Please take your time and explore loft and loft option, don't do things in haste . Please please please don't install a building in the already small garden before exploring all options.

[carastro]

Obviously written by some-one who doesn't understand how astronomy works. Can you imagine the limitations of working from the loft. Updraft of heat and having to move from one window to another during an imaging run.... I don't think so.

Suggest if all else fails get yourself an observatory tent, they can't object to that as it's not permanent. There was an excellent one being marketed at kelling this year called a Galaxy tent, it was as good as a domed observatory. I haven't seen it on line yet unfortunately but the designer was there and using it, and a retailer was going to take it on. Being sold at Kelling for £400.

Carole

[rfdesigner]

Absolutely no understanding of astronomy there what so ever.

The scope must be away from any heated building, even a 1C temperature difference is disasterous, a well insulated house will still be 2 or 3C above ambient potentially much higher.

RE: neighbours complaints etc. If you effectively have a summer house what's there to complain about? Best thing as always is to chat with neighbours before hand.

I take it the garden in question is rather small?.. any chance of combining shed and scope?.. not ideal but preferable to a loft.

DErek

[rfdesigner]

how about something like this?

http://stargazerslounge.com/discussions-scopes-whole-setups/160082-compact-observatory-even-wife-approves.html

Alternatively a 'shed' that only just covers the scope, and rolls away from the base to give you a 'non-obsy' experience but will roll back in a matter of seconds. That way you take up hardly any space.

Derek

[Dave]

Was this "guidance" from your other half?

To answer many of your questions, speak or write to your local councils planning department.

In many cases you do not need planning permission, but if you don't, they send you a letter informing you that this is the case.

Keep this letter, as it is evidence that they have agreed to the building and there should be no comeback, even if neighbours complain about it afterwards; as long as you build it as described to the council, (size, position etc.).

If you do need planning permission, then the construction will be advertised to all the neighbours and they can object then, before it is built, but they must have a very good reason for their objection to be taken seriously. They cannot complain officially afterwards if you have written planning permission to build it.

My observatory is built in a relatively small garden. My wife is very understanding, but on the up side, it also means there is less garden to maintain. As regards the view, I put it in front of the kitchen so we can't see it from the living room. I had to have planning permission for it. But this was only due to some public access close by, not due to the size of the building or the plot size.

As regards effect of the value of your house, you dismantle it before you decide to move. Thus problem in value and saleability of house is back to normal.

Getting an observatory on the roof will be extremely expensive (and not very planning office friendly) and thermals from the house below will affect the seeing badly.

Hope this helps.

Dave

[LukeSkywatcher]

How old was the person who wrote this letter to you?

My 8 yr old niece could write a more official and intelligent reply.

[yesyes]

Did that person, by any chance, think you want to build a dome obsy, rather than a roll-off-roof shed type obsy? The latter looks just like a normal shed, not ugly at all...

[Ericgraham]

I know what the theory says, but a rooftop observatory can work. Once I had a house built and the builder offered to put a platform on the roof with a hatch for access- at to extra cost. What could I lose?

I set up my C11 and had no problems with either vibration or seeing, though I never tried astrophotography. The house had lots of insulation, it was at 8000 ft elevation and the temperatures could drop to -40. The convenience factor meant that I used the scope a lot while I lived there. Go for some kind of observatory if you possibly can.

Eric

[Gina]

Print off a couple of the better roll off roof sheds from here and show her. Choose one(s) that are quite small and garden-friendly. You could have just an obsy with a pergola for the roof to roll off onto. Could be quite small that way. If you were to start off small and all is well you might be able to enlarge it later or build a small warm room under the pergola. Anything would be better than trying to use the loft - I'm afraid that's a complete non-starter for astronomy, even a tent as suggested. Or a roll off shed/box.

[laser_jock99]

Print off a couple of the better roll off roof sheds from here and show her. Choose one(s) that are quite small and garden-friendly. You could have just an obsy with a pergola for the roof to roll off onto. Could be quite small that way. If you were to start off small and all is well you might be able to enlarge it later or build a small warm room under the pergola. Anything would be better than trying to use the loft - I'm afraid that's a complete non-starter for astronomy, even a tent as suggested. Or a roll off shed/box.

I don't think my roll off roof obsy is that ugly- think of the benefits of a nice decking area under roll-off area (this is how I convinced my better half!)

[malc-c]

Sounds like the author of that letter has a very naive view on the subject.

There are some very fine examples of ROR observatories on this forum. Show or refer the author (wife or girlfriend) to this forum and point out how shed like they look.

As for planning permissions - the rules regarding the size and placement are well documented on the web, most (if not all) the self builds here dis not need planning permission. However, if you are planning on moving up the housing ladder rather than long term then make sure that the build is such that it can be removed without little impact on the garden.

[vincentnm]

Thanks for the advice folks. The build is about to start. I'll post some pics of the site and plan for the foundation soon.

Thanks,

Vincent.

[Merlin66]

A simple ROR shed isn't so intrusive...build on pavers it can easily be re-located etc...

[Aoraki]

Mines not to bad either, it passed the "Mrs" test!.

[Merlin66]

Very nice!

I like that.....