Planning on building my first Obs Any help welcome

[stuartjones]

Hi there I have been into Astronomy since i was a child, The last couple of years I have been getting into astrophotography, I recently got my first proper ccd camera a starlight xpress MX7C single shot color and in the middle of upgrading from a Meade ETX80 at-tc to a meade LX90 , The thing is my wife has had enough of all my gear laying around the front room, my garage is not dry enough so I am going to be building an Observatory for it all it needs to be as small as possible but hold a 8" scope and all my other gear and my laptop setup with an external screen add on. Has anyone out there got any experience in building observatories to give me a little bit of a starting point for this I am quite good at DIY well i like to think so.

Any advice would be great many thanks all

[laser_jock99]

How much garden space do you have exactly?

[stuartjones]

Hi well I have a spare area of about 6ft x 6ft maybe 6 x 8 at a push

[r3i]

Welcome aboard Stuart.

I'm currently about 1/3 way through my build so my experience is still part complete but what I would suggest is to read and re-read every observatory build thread in this forum - there's a wealth of experience to tap into here from fellow members who've built observatories in all shapes and sizes. It has certainly been and continues to be a big help to me in my own project. It will hopefully give you a good idea on what is possible within the space you have and to get a workable design in place.

If you are a competent DIYer it should be well within your capabilities.

Best of luck!

[Gina]

That reminds me - I really must write an abbreviated thread of my build the current one is far too long.

[tony]

Welcome aboard Stuart.

I'm currently about 1/3 way through my build so my experience is still part complete but what I would suggest is to read and re-read every observatory build thread in this forum - there's a wealth of experience to tap into here from fellow members who've built observatories in all shapes and sizes. It has certainly been and continues to be a big help to me in my own project. It will hopefully give you a good idea on what is possible within the space you have and to get a workable design in place.

If you are a competent DIYer it should be well within your capabilities.

Best of luck!

i'll 2nd that, another thing i did was if i saw anything that could be useful i just saved a copy of the pic to my hard drive. so when it comes to planning your own you have a few piccies for reference.

[stuartjones]

Well thank you all so far for your input I will have a look through the forum later when the kids are in bed see what ideas i can come up with I will put a picture of my design when I get one. thanks again all, there are so many friendly and helpful people here.

[Bizibilder]

Have a look at the blog in my signature for a 6'6" by 6'6" metal shed conversion - you will have to go back a bit! (2009-10 will get you there). Plus there are lots on the forum in the DIY section and the web in general.

[stuartjones]

Thanks that is a great link and it is all a help and some great idea's.

[laser_jock99]

Hi well I have a spare area of about 6ft x 6ft maybe 6 x 8 at a push

Ought to be enough to squeeze in a little roll off roof design (assuming the 6x8 area does not include the area the roof rolls to). The only advice I can give at this stage is go for the largest size available to you 6x6 is a little bit tight (some say 7x7 is the minimum workable area).

[stuartjones]

No i have some extra room available for a roof to slide off. as long as the main area only covers so much. I may be able to push it to 7x8 and a roll off roof but that would be it. many thanks laser