Mini DIY observatory - early design stage

[jimbo747]

Recently moved house, but not yet had chance to get the scope out now eldest has started school, and will be spending most of my spare time either unpacking/sorting and getting the old house ready to go back on the market. 

 

Whilst visual observations will be out for the foreseeable future, I would like to do some more basic astrophotography with my DSLR and 224mc cameras.

My old setup I had the mount and camera connected to my mini PC, as well as a guide cam and webcam to help with remote aligning. However, getting the scope out, and setting up was a faff, taking a good 30 minutes, and then having to keep an eye on the weather to bring it back inside in the early hours was tedious. The answer therefore is an outside setup where I can permanently keep my scope setup.

 

With my new found love of raspberry pi's, and the amazon echo I quite fancy building a mini observatory. I have an SLT mount, may upgrade to a 'proper' mount one day but for now I'm using the SLT, even if completely unsuitable. I've got my eye on a keter storage box as shown below:

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00I01O6YW

 

Space inside looks fine, may need to think about the floor to keep the mount stable. I'm intending on housing my intel NUC pc in there, along with a light box to take flats after (or before). I'd like it to operate automatically, using 4 linear actuators to operate the roof and doors which I can control from indoors (and eventually voice control through alexa / IFTTT), maybe even trigger to close automatically if chance of rain exceeds a certain value, and perhaps some sort of internal smart lock that again can be operated remotely for security.

If anyone has converted/tried to do something similar to the same keter box, or made use of raspberry pi's to control opening/closing of their obsy I'd love any tips you may have! 

 

 

 

[Tiny Small]

I have the same box but the midi version and use it as a roll of shed. The floors are single ply plastic with raised nodules on the underside. You will need to cut through the floor where your tripod legs/pier stands as the plastic will be nowhere near strong enough to support it. I'm in the process of building a new base for mine as it needs raising by about 10 inches to go over my new mount and pier (the old one was a lot shorter). The quality control on them is terrible but once they are together, they a reasonably sturdy and completely water proof.

[jimbo747]

The quality that bad? Looked decent on photos and reviews. Thought I might need to drill through the base. Do you get any issues with condensation or is that mainly a problem for metal sheds?

[Tiny Small]

As mine is a roll off, it has a large slot cut into the Base to go around the pier. This allows the air to flow through and reduces condensation. I've also got some tubs of desiccant in there (got 10 big tubs for £12 on amazon) and so far, they are lasting ages, hardly collecting any moisture at all... So in short, no trouble at all with moisture. 

[jimbo747]

I see what you mean about the quality now.

 

Ordered a keter max from Amazon as it was on offer for £78 and big enough for my needs,  saved me £150 on the super size version.

The roof part near the hinges has bits of plastic snapped off so I opened a return with Amazon, however on closer inspection the broken bit doesn't affect the integrity. Might order another and swap roof over.

So just finished building, got my pi and a 4 channel relay, wil write some code this weekend  with an led to simulate opening and closing. Not ordered the linear actuators yet as needed to check distances etc.  

 

Out of the design stage now at least!