Roll-away observatory build complete!

[jimness]

Hi all,

It's taken several weekends of graft but I'm finally there, bar a bit of cable tidying.  I'd decided to go with the roll-away sentry box style arrangement after seeing a pic in S@N magazine; also andyo was an inspiration with his post - http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/156319-roll-off-shed-not-roof/.

The first thing to do was dig a trench to level the ground, with a deeper hole for the pier plinth.  In the end I built the plinth with big concrete blocks rather than pouring a single lump - it was much (much) cheaper this way and seems to be pretty solid.  I then drilled holes and bolted the EQ6 pillar to this plinth using some M16 (I think?) bolts and Rawlplug's R-Kem concoction.

Next was the decking, which went on a frame built over and around the plinth hole so it'd be secure all around the pier.  I made sure my extension cable was poking up between pier and decking before screwing it down  I then added buffers at either end and some rails to keep the shed rolling in the right place.

The shed itself is 4 foot square; I wanted the whole build to be as small as possible so it wouldn't dominate the garden!  To start with I sliced a hole just wide enough for the pier in the base, added a bunch of reinforcing blocks of wood, and used 12 wheels to support the shed.  I then came up with a way of bolting the shed base to the ground in both positions - this would keep the thing held down during the endless Dartmoor storms, and make it a tad easier to build the shed in the first place.  For this I used the original EQ6 feet as the big heads would make it easy to screw and unscrew by hand.

Once the shed was built it was easy to roll the whole thing smoothly into and out of position, keeping within the rails and stoppng at the buffers so it doesn't touch the pier.  A bit of tidying up and it's all done!  Next steps will be to paint all the sticking-up bits white so I avoid auto-kebabbage in the dark.

Here's a close up of one of the foot bolts holding it all down:

...and here are a couple of photos of the completed shed in 'closed' and 'observe' mode:

Anyway I hope this might help some of you if you have similar plans.  Of course I'm yet to actually use the observatory....yes, Storm Desmond is my fault...sorry.

Jim

[des anderson]

Wow,so,so smart,what a smashing looking observatory,and from the photo`s supplied,goes well in the garden.Thank`s for posting.Have fun with that....Des

[steppenwolf]

I love it - a novel and practical solution, I hope it gives you some great sessions in the future. Do you have a strategy for removing water accumulation around the tripod/pier base?

[laudropb]

Looks vey good and extremely practical.

[Bizibilder]

That's one of the neatest roll off shed designs I've seen - well done!

If i could make a couple of suggestions - Do you intend to put some sort of flexible "skirt" around the bottom of the shed?  Mainly to stop the wind and leaves etc from getting underneath and trying to lift the shed off its wheels.  You do have it bolted down (bolts into wood??) but I think a skirt would help.  It would also help deflect water away from the underside of the structure.  A possible source of material would be that black plastic damp proof material sold in rolls for putting a dpc in brickwork - 150mm or 200mm wide.

It may be worth building a "French drain" around the edge of your wooden "base" - just a 200mm deep x 200mm wide trench filled with gravel and topped with pea shingle (10mm pebbles - to make it look nice!) to act as a drain that will allow excess water to escape quickly.  If you keep the pebbles below lawn level they should not get in the way of mowing the lawn.

[Tinker1947]

That's a very neat job you have done there, i would screw the decking to the ground just to be sure it won't move in the wind, some like these 3 down each side bend the handle over and put something like a pipe clamp to stop it straightening or unscrewing.....

http://www.halfords.com/motoring/travel-accessories/pet-travel/halfords-spiral-screw-stake

[Ceramus]

Looks very neat. I have a similar plan to house a SW 300p. Just worried about strong winds?

[Pan Euro]

That is a very quick build and very nice it is too. I would second the recommendation for the "French drain"

[jimness]

Thanks for the replies all!  Good idea about the skirting - I think I have some of that damp proofing stuff so that sounds like an easy first mod.  I'll look at the French drain idea too as we're getting plenty of rain - though so far the garden appears to drain pretty quickly.  The obsy is sited at the higher end of the garden so water doesn't tend to accumulate there.  Mind you the ends of the decking are likely to get rather moist so gravel may be the solution.

Ceramus I too worry about strong winds; we get plenty of them here on Dartmoor...but it's been blowy as hell here for the last week and it hasn't budged.  Also whilst I tried to level the site as much as possible there is still a slight slope towards the scope, so it will naturally tend to stay 'closed'.  Those bolts seem to be doing the job so far too.

Here are some images taken from here with my temporary set-up (i.e. no guiding)...all Canon 6D with either Canon lenses or Takahashi FS78.

Cassiopeia

North America Nebula

M33

M31 & M32

Oh and one of these

Jim

[Vox45]

Looks really nice an elegant solution for a permanent setup

[JeremyS]

Nice obsy and nice images!

Jeremy

[ArmyAirForce]

If you make a fold down shelf in the shed part, you've got a perfect warm room next to the scope and a place for a laptop! The only other things you'd need is a fold up camping chair and a flask!

[Stu1976j]

Love the obsy and a few great images

[catman161]

Very nice indeed. I too went down the roll off shed route and haven't looked back

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Ceramus]

Great images Jim. And good solution for roll-off shed obsy. Will start planning mine now!

[ollypenrice]

I built a rolling sentry box about 12 years ago before the brilliant idea of using a flat platform with slot came along, so making it possible to use a prorietory shed. What a breakthrough this is! I had to get the necesseary strength by welding up a steel chassis whereas, this way, a simple plywood square gives all the integrity you need. I'd put this bit of design on a par with the Dobsonian mount in terms of simplifying amateur astronomy. I don't know who invented it but well done!

The rolled off shed can make a ready made warm room/computer room:chart room as well. You can always add a 'pod' to keep the computer or other accessories in there by day as well. Here I'm re-cladding the original sentry box with the addidtion of such a pod. It proves very handy.

The rolling sentry box is, I think, the smallest of solutions and one of the best.

Olly