Simple observatory?

[altnacraig]

I'm getting to the stage where I'm thinking of a permanent observatory (maybe 8' x 6') and have looked at wooden sheds with slide-off roofs, but don't particularly want to extend the area of the shed by a further 8' to accommodate the poles to enable the roof to slide. And I'm not keen on the plastic dome type. Has anyone come up with an answer that avoids sliding the whole 8' x 6' roof off onto the extended pole supports (a folding roof maybe?). I somehow doubt it - but just in case..

[Freff]

Have a look here there maybe something for you.

[sologuitarist61]

I'm getting to the stage where I'm thinking of a permanent observatory (maybe 8' x 6') and have looked at wooden sheds with slide-off roofs, but don't particularly want to extend the area of the shed by a further 8' to accommodate the poles to enable the roof to slide. And I'm not keen on the plastic dome type. Has anyone come up with an answer that avoids sliding the whole 8' x 6' roof off onto the extended pole supports (a folding roof maybe?). I somehow doubt it - but just in case..

I hope you get a few more responses to this thread as I too am interested in doing the same. The thing that is putting me off a slide off shed roof is that they are still just a shed, with a roof that slides - now that makes me think that the shed walls would still be the same height (5foot plus?) and so very restrictive and losing sky towards the horizon.

I think in an idea world I would prefer the whole shed to slide away leaving the scope open to the sky, but then you will have problems with electrics and computer cabling etc. There must be a solution and hopefully some bright spark will come up with it before I start work on mine:icon_scratch:

[Parallax]

This is how I did mine. With hindsight I would have attached the roof to the walls, cut the walls approx 2ft down and rolled the whole lot off. Does that make sense?

Steve

[sologuitarist61]

Thanks Steve for that and yes your suggestion makes good sense, will take that on board when i finally get around to doing mine.

[Parallax]

Just to clarify what I mean about cutting the sides down, here is a link to someone else's site which shows the idea quite clearly.

Steve

[altnacraig]

Thanks Steve - most useful. Out of interest do you have a concrete base in the shed or did you install a concreted pillar and a wooden floor around it?

Mike

[sologuitarist61]

I understand that it is important to separate the pillar mount from the rest of the flooring to avoid movement vibrating through the scope.

[ollypenrice]

I made the rolling roof roll back over the warm room to save space.

As you can see, the pictures just show works in progress.

Olly

[malc-c]

Have a look in the DIY Observatory section - there may be inspiration in some of the threads there

[altnacraig]

Thanks everyone. I hadn't realised that there was a seperate DIY Observatory section. Apologies for not checking but thanks for the links...

[Parallax]

Thanks Steve - most useful. Out of interest do you have a concrete base in the shed or did you install a concreted pillar and a wooden floor around it?

Mike

There used to be a 10 x 8 greenhouse on this site on a 'concrete plinth'. As you can see I utilised this plinth for the shed (6 x 8) to stand on (with an extra length under where the warm room partition wall was to be). As I had spent a bit more than I originally intended, instead of building a pier I cast 3 concrete pillars and keep the tripod. (Those 5 litre paint tubs are filled with concrete).

Steve