Anybody got an Obsy for a dob?

[Rusty Strings]

I know that a dob is considered to be generally more portable and quicker to set up that an EQ newt, but has anydoby got one in a obsy?

John

[Rusty Strings]

I'll take that as a no then.

John

[Doc]

I would love one but alas don't have one.

[Beyond_Vision]

Most observatories walls are too tall to be practical for a Dob. The pivot point for the altitude is very low on the dob so you will need to raise the base off the ground. This then give you another problem in that the eyepiece will be too high when near the zenith.

Regards

Kevin

[Rusty Strings]

Fair point.

John

[Ben Ritchie]

I've seen "Dobservatories" in the states before - quite common I think for people with the big (18"-25"+) truss dobs which take a bit of setup. Cloudy Nights have a fair few examples.

I think that they tend to be quite big, which keeps the walls further away from the 'scope. Easier done in the USA with lots of land, of course.

[Doc]

The way to do it to have the wall pivot half way down so you get a better view.

[ollypenrice]

Is the assumption that an obsy has to be one in which you observe? I made a roll off shed for Sir Isaac, our tweny inch. Once rolled off it has a drop down table to keep your EPs and charts under control. You can see it, and others, in David Ardtitti's book Setting Up A Small Observatory or I'll gladly send you pics and construction details. (In a nutshell I learned to MIG weld - easy - and welded up a frame on rails which is then clad in ply with a currugated steel roof. Works a treat and took 2.5 days from back of envelope to completion. (Sorry, excluding groundwork.) Moving a tweny inch isn't fun for all the wheelbarrow handles in the world. and Sir Isaac seems very happy where he is.

The other option is a roll off roof but that needs to be a heck of a lot bigger and gigantic in the case of a big Dob. As has been said, the issue is the low height of the altitude bearing, but how low is your horizon and how polluted? MIght not be much of an issue?

Olly

[Beyond_Vision]

Even with my Dob in the middle of a garden the 6ft fence panel and plants get in the way. As Olly suggests, the roll off obsy would be a good solution .

[Phil Fargaze]

My dob is in my home made shed with roll off roof. To increase my horizon it stands on a steel mount bolted to the concrete floor which raises it about a metre off the ground. To reach to the eyepiece I have put in a raised floor surrounding the mount. It`s great to have the scope ready to go, but if I need to I can carry the scope out of the shed and use it in the garden or elsewhere.

[Rusty Strings]

Phil, thats a great solution to raise the mount.

John

[Phil Fargaze]

Yes it works nice, I custom made the stand to fit the feet on the bottom of the dob. The dob feet slip into a foam filled rings which holds it steady but doesn`t scratch. When I am using the digital setting circles I need it to stay fixed, else I would loose accuracy to find things.

[Rusty Strings]

I built a dob mount for my explorer 200 from MDF which works really well but compared to the eq5 it does sit a bit low to the ground. I had an idea to use a half a beer barrel to raise it by 18 inches or so.

John