Just a twinkle

[rfdesigner]

Hi

It's been a while since we agreed to buy a place with a sky, a dark one, and finally the potentially very costly and serious issues have been resolved one by one, so that with a bit of luck we'll be exchanging shortly.

I can now begin to turn my thoughts towards the fun bit: an Obsy

So there's a twinkle in my eye as I put pencil to paper.. or these days, finger to keyboard.

Before I begin I thought I'd read about other's obsys, and woa!!! the threads are a tad long round here aren't they?! I've skimmed a few but Gina!.. that isn't a thread, it's a book! (I will read it through in due course)

I'm hoping to get a few pointers on key aspects that need to be correct.

Firstly I want an obsy for my main scope.. a 12" F5 Newt on it's heavyweight mount.. the whole affair weighs in at a heafty 10 stone, so I don't like carrying around much. It also means any pier is going to have be up to the task. Also I like high-res deep-sky photography so I will care about thermal effects, just not quite as much as the planetry imagers.

My initial thought is to mount the pier direct into the ground, but.... the ground has very high surface water levels and clay subsoil. Any exposed steel will rust through in minutes.

For the obsy structure I'm thinking roll off roof, but I'll want it to reflect the house style which is older and interesting, so I want to be going for wood tiles on a 45 degree pitch roof (or similar). I'm also concerned about insulation / re-radiation.. what are the alternatives here?.. double skin? lots of thermal insulation? single skin?.

As the site is so wet I'm thinking about using metposts in concrete to keep all the wood out of the ground.. is this any good?, are there better ways?

The biggest problem of all is of course.. just how big? the scope is over 5' long and 14" diameter and the counterweight does stick out a bit.

Oh and I'm 39, and these days less fit than I'd like, so I need a nice big project to get me in shape

Thanks in advance.

Derek

[swamp thing]

Hi

Metaposts will rust long before decent pressure treated timber rots.

Just don't buy timber from bodge it quicks. Buy from proper timber merchants.

Good luck with your build.

Regards Steve

[Gina]

Yes, the timber from proper timber merchants is both a lot better and cheaper than the big DIY stores.