Who's in the dog house

[grimble61]

So had a couple of days free and an old B&Q plastic shed that used to be a roll off that didnt work.so built myself a dog house, just waiting for it to get dark so i can polar align.

[grimble61]

some more photos

[nightfisher]

Ingenious 

[grimble61]

Nightfisher

Thank you, i tried having a roll off shed but when i rolled off i only had 2 foot claerance and could not see polaris,,,,,,, so a lot of thinking and came up with this, it still a WIP but now have total 360 degrees of sky, i also have a shed that is lined with vapour barrier so will have laptop in there oh and heating.....

Graham

[SnakeyJ]

Nice practical solution Graham. I was thinking last night, the one luxury I would like in the Mk2 obs, beyond the warm room, would be a camping loo. Especially as the bladder weakens with age ;-)

[Gina]

Very interesting

[darthvader]

so, no snow in paignton then

[grimble61]

Thanks guys n gals

Snakeyj

good thing is i have a loo in my basement that is accessed from my garden.......... Feeling smug !!!!

Gina

could this work for your widefield rig, top just pushes off it very light , as i said it was a cheap plastic shed from B&Q was 6x4 now 4x4 plastic cuts very easely with stanley knife....

Darthvader

hardly ever snows in paignton.....Just lots of clouds

[saac]

Love it, brilliant solution Graham.  An extra bonus is the security aspect  -  any would be ne'er doer would be unlikely to give a dog house a second glance unlike say a garden shed. How are you securing it against wind, I would suspect it's a fairly light structure?

Jim

[Gina]

I did consider this sort of thing Graham but decided it would be a bit difficult to automate

[grimble61]

saac

it is bolted to base inside at door using captive nuts and only straps at rear at moment as only started building it on sunday . thats the deck as well

Gina

thats next on my long list of to do things to do.

[baggywrinkle]

Ha ha..a dog house I'd be happy to be in..

[fondofchips]

Woofderful!

[grimble61]

Well it blowing a hoolie outside and it is still intact and totally dry inside.......PHEW

[saac]

Always a sense of relief when you open the door and everything is still there -  still there and dry is even better 

Jim

[grimble61]

Well we now have 12Volt power run from my shed to a sealed electrical box in base of dog house(enclosure) using 13.8 / 5amp power supply from FLO,using 17.5 amp cable in 2" conduit that runs both 314l and titan guide cameras and mount.

Took the plunge and re wired my crappy NEQ6 12V socket.  easier than i thought and had a test run in day light for movement of mount and can say i am totaly over the moon with it all.

It only takes 5 minutes to remove enclosure plug usbs in to laptop and im imageing.........

Now for some clear skys and no moon, oh and not having to go to work next day....

Graham

More pictures of set up to follow..

[grimble61]

Well now have sorted my kit out and have got my 314l+ and stalight mini filterwheel and off axis guider / sx co-star connected to my william optics gt81 and ascom drivers in stalled so i can run on maxim dl5, all drivers connect no problem just need to see some stars rather than cloud so that i can get the cameras par focal and have a play !!!!!    oh and 7 port powered usb hub so now only 1 usb cable to laptop in me shed.....