Not having much opportunity to dabble with imaging, I wanted to maximise the odd occasion that I do venture outside, and minimise the set-up task. Whilst I’m more of a visual observer, I do enjoy snappy away at the night sky and hope to improve my very entry level skills.
As such, the thought of a ROR observatory was appealing. When one presented here on the IIS classifieds I just had to have it.
Now this
TSO (Tin Shed Observatory) is not your ordinary run of the mill unit. It has travelled the world with a very experienced astronomer in Merlin66 (Ken), who himself had located it in 3 separate countries. See details here of it’s 1st, 2nd & 3rd incarnations.
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...ad.php?t=35163
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...ad.php?t=77796
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...d.php?t=101493
So the process of tear down and reconstruction began. I only had to travel a short distance to relocate the
TSO, but we did a full disassembly of all walls and frame, and just left the roof assembled as it is structurally very strong.
In preparing the new site in my backyard in the northern suburbs of Melbourne, I wasn’t interested in the permanency of a slab or fixed pier base, rather I’ve just boxed a solid raised perimeter base with about 6” ~ 9” inches of compacted road base, and then laid left over paving for the bottom of the
TSO. For the veranda of the
TSO I’ve just laid 200x50 H4 Pine Sleeper.
I’ve positioned the
TSO so the roof rolls off to the east and maximises my available sky view. Ideally the roof would have rolled to the west and I would have located the set-up closer to the fence line, but the neighbour’s trees would have blocked significantly more sky. As it turns out, I have approx 60% view to the east and south, and about 70% view to the north and west, ignoring a few trees.
In the first 2 weeks I’ve had the
TSO erected, the sky has been ordinary, but I do enjoy venturing outside for a quick tinker, which I couldn’t do without it. So far my decision to do this has been rewarding. It’s also provided the opportunity to store some of my gear outside it a cupboard I’ve installed, freeing up space in my rumpus room. Valuable camera gear, eyepieces, solar gear, and the like all remain inside, but at least I can use my billiard table now.
All feedback and comments welcome.
Following are some photos of my construction.
1. Original site with temporary moveable scope shed/cover
2. Original pavers I used to use to set-up
3. Prepared base with 6”~9” of compacted road base
4. My 2 boys helping to carry pavers for base
5. Completed paving with base frame configured
6. Frame assembled
7. Side walls being installed
8. 4 walls installed and looked South East
