Converted tool shed OR ...

[SteveBz]

Hi Guys,

Today marked the opening of the long awaited Woodside Obervatory.  In my efforts to avoid having to put up and dismantle my scope every night, I replaced the roof of the old toolshed with a lightweight, pull off variety made from some leftover gardening materials.

Here is the outside.  The carefully chosen, designer paint job deters would-be intruders:

The inside reveals a remotely controlled C8-N (not even standing room).

With Arduino controlled autofocus, DSLR and auto-guiding:

And removable roof...

All connected with an extended 15m USB cable to my laptop on the kitchen table.

It had a quick test run today and it has nice southerly views of the ecliptic and northerly views of Polaris, for Polar alignment.  It now takes 10 minutes or less to set up and put away.

The hedge will need a bit of "fine-tuning" as will the height of the mount and I hope to put hinges on some of the wooden walls to open up some of the views.

Total cost to date:  £2.99 on gate hinges, which I have not even used yet.

Thanks for looking and suggestions welcome.

Regards

Steve.

PS Just added a more South facing opening.

Edited June 3, 2017 by SteveBz
Updates.

[Odd Thomas]

And that just goes to show you don't have to spend a fortune to enhance this hobby. Nice job Steve.

[MarsG76]

Great stuff, who said that a observatory build means remortgaging your home and selling a kidney??... definitely will be better than having to setup every session. 

 

[elliot]

Took me a second to work out what that was.  For some reason my mind was thinking of microphones...

I'm inspired by your conversion. Pretty sure I can afford £2.50.

[Shibby]

I admire the simplicity; what works, works! My current observatory build seems to have escalated in cost and feels like I'll never finish it!

[SteveNickolls]

Very well done Steve, an inspiration to the rest of us who would like an observatory but haven't the cash. 

Cheers,
Steve

[Helen]

An obs is THE best astro accessory   

Just one suggestion, put some insulation on the underside of the roof otherwise your kit will really suffer from extremes of temperature.  My roll off roof is kingspan underneath corrugated sheets - the kingspan is superlight, but makes a huge difference :wink:

Enjoy

Helen

[MarsG76]

On 15 June 2017 at 19:20, Shibby said:

I admire the simplicity; what works, works! My current observatory build seems to have escalated in cost and feels like I'll never finish it!

I know EXACTLY what you mean, I started building a obsy/scope storage shed... And it feel like it's taking forever.

[ollypenrice]

On 15/06/2017 at 13:24, Helen said:

An obs is THE best astro accessory   

Just one suggestion, put some insulation on the underside of the roof otherwise your kit will really suffer from extremes of temperature.  My roll off roof is kingspan underneath corrugated sheets - the kingspan is superlight, but makes a huge difference

Enjoy

Helen

Seconded. Vital advice.

Olly

[SteveBz]

On 15/06/2017 at 08:24, Helen said:

An obs is THE best astro accessory   

Just one suggestion, put some insulation on the underside of the roof otherwise your kit will really suffer from extremes of temperature.  My roll off roof is kingspan underneath corrugated sheets - the kingspan is superlight, but makes a huge difference

Enjoy

Helen

You were completely right.  Yesterday I could have fried an egg on my C8-N.

So I grabbed an original 1960's roller blind (see below), fresh from the demolition work we are doing and put it vertically across the gap.  It dropped the temperature below boiling point, but still pretty warm.  The nice thing is that the mechanism still works.  I can yank it and it rolls back while not adding to the weight of the roof.

As soon as I have some spare Damp Proof Membrane I'll upgrade the mould-stained chintz, but as it's still a lift-on/lift-off roof, I need to keep the weight down.

However, it does mean that OTA cooling fans are now a pressing need!

Thanks

Steve.

[SteveBz]

10 minutes ago, SteveBz said:

You were completely right.  Yesterday I could have fried an egg on my C8-N.

So I grabbed an original 1960's roller blind (see below), fresh from the demolition work we are doing and put it vertically across the gap.  It dropped the temperature below boiling point, but still pretty warm.  The nice thing is that the mechanism still works.  I can yank it and it rolls back while not adding to the weight of the roof.

As soon as I have some spare Damp Proof Membrane I'll upgrade the mould-stained chintz, but as it's still a lift-on/lift-off roof, I need to keep the weight down.

However, it does mean that OTA cooling fans are now a pressing need!

Thanks

Steve.

 

15 hours ago, ollypenrice said:

Seconded. Vital advice.

Olly

 

On 15/06/2017 at 08:24, Helen said:

An obs is THE best astro accessory   

Just one suggestion, put some insulation on the underside of the roof otherwise your kit will really suffer from extremes of temperature.  My roll off roof is kingspan underneath corrugated sheets - the kingspan is superlight, but makes a huge difference

Enjoy

Helen

Guys, what extremes of temp do I need to guard against?  And probably extremes of moisture too.  I have a friend with a full custom-built obsy and his equipment is always dripping with condensation, which I don't believe can help the electronics.

I think I'll start off by adding a temperature/humidity control to the Arduino (there's one in the project box), and maybe stealing the max-min themometer from the greenhouse.

I do have huge amounts of insulation board hanging around, which I could purloin, but it's all 70-100 mm thick, which is a bit of a weight concern.  Maybe I could get a thinner one from Wickes.

I could also put a floor-standing fan in there quite easily.

Edited June 19, 2017 by SteveBz

[ollypenrice]

In SE France we get to 35C and hotter so our kits gets hot, so far withut detriment (over 14 years.) But humiodity is not good. A small heat source like a pet warming pad (they exist!) under an insulating blanket over the scope will keep the vitals above the dew point and cost zilch to run. A dehumidifier in a draughty environment won't work well, I don't think.

Olly

[Merlin66]

+1 for the Doggie heating blanket - cheap to buy, cheap to run and works 100%.

 

[SteveBz]

43 minutes ago, Merlin66 said:

+1 for the Doggie heating blanket - cheap to buy, cheap to run and works 100%.

 

 

1 hour ago, ollypenrice said:

In SE France we get to 35C and hotter so our kits gets hot, so far withut detriment (over 14 years.) But humiodity is not good. A small heat source like a pet warming pad (they exist!) under an insulating blanket over the scope will keep the vitals above the dew point and cost zilch to run. A dehumidifier in a draughty environment won't work well, I don't think.

Olly

Is there a preferred brand of doggie blanket, preferably BAA and Kennel Club approved!

[ollypenrice]

2 minutes ago, SteveBz said:

 

Is there a preferred brand of doggie blanket, preferably BAA and Kennel Club approved!

I'm a mongrel man myself!

Olly

[pete_l]

2 hours ago, SteveBz said:

Guys, what extremes of temp do I need to guard against?

I doubt if it will be much worse than the extremes we get here: roughly -10° - +40°C

Edited June 19, 2017 by pete_l

[SteveBz]

Hi Pete,

Very nice.  What is safe, and what is not safe?

Direct sunlight on a black Celestron is very, very hot.  But I can't imagine it does more than fade the paint, however, everything about the mount gets hot too, the mount head, the motors, the handset etc.  Now I've added the blind, it's a bit cooler, but should I do more, or just not worry about it.

Cold, I probably don't need to worry too much.

Regards

Steve.

[pete_l]

Yes, direct sunlight would be very, very bad. Fortunately my kit is inside sheds / obys, so it only ever hits the ambient temperatures seen in that plot. (Unlike my car!)

I would expect that telescope makers only use "domestic" rated components, not mil-spec. So the innards of a metal scope body in direct sunlight could be considerably hotter. My conservatory in England would occasionally hit 50°C in the summer. The plants were not impressed.

I would imagine that these sorts of temperatures could be close to the operating limit of some battery types and cheap electrolytic capacitors. And some rather tightly adjusted worms could feel the strain, too. It might not be good for LCDs - either on handsets or in monitors left out, either.

 

So far as cold temperatures go, I reckon that so long as there isn't any frozen-in condensation on surfaces that should move, you'd be OK. Maybe a winter coating of something (probably not WD40 on electrical contacts) would help. Oiling the tools in my shed used to keep them rust free during the winter.