Dunny-doo observatory

[mldee (Mike)]

Thanks Warren, a small additional thought that may persuade you to dive in.....

I'm not a "set it up then go to bed until the morning" type, far too anal for that. I like to sit up in the house and follow progress until I get too sleepy, then I go out and close the whole shebang up.

However lots of folks are happy to leave their RO roof obs open and chugging along all night without any major disasters, just keep an early eye on the weather radar.

If you're that type, go for it. It just means a simple removal next morning of any items too big to fit, and then the pier, mount and all cabling and the numerous mount ancillaries can be left undisturbed, closed up safe from the weather and curious fingers, especially in suburban areas.
Cheers,

[Crater101 (Warren)]

Originally Posted by mldee

Thanks Warren, a small additional thought that may persuade you to dive in.....

I'm not a "set it up then go to bed until the morning" type, far too anal for that. I like to sit up in the house and follow progress until I get too sleepy, then I go out and close the whole shebang up.

However lots of folks are happy to leave their RO roof obs open and chugging along all night without any major disasters, just keep an early eye on the weather radar.

I'm not of that mind either. The weather where I live is too changeable. But I do like the idea of being able to get up and running quickly. Hmmm...

[mldee (Mike)]

Glad to see I'm not alone!

To reinforce your temptation, it really does make a massive difference to setup and takedown times and effort.

Quite often I just take a look at the sky as twilight arrives, decide whether there's a suitable target using Telescopius and Viola, the thing is up and running in about 10 minutes at most, including lugging the OTA out and putting it on the mount. The 11pm sleepy time takedown takes even less, 5 minutes and all is safe and snug and I'm back in front of the fire.

A small aside if you proceed; Make the pier about 30cm shorter than mine to facilitate OTA on/off and it also reduces overall equipment height, so more OTAs will fit under the shed door height and don't then need removal. I tried to get a slightly higher shed size, but the next one up was too big.

[Crater101 (Warren)]

Originally Posted by mldee

Glad to see I'm not alone!

To reinforce your temptation, it really does make a massive difference to setup and takedown times and effort.

...

A small aside if you proceed; Make the pier about 30cm shorter than mine to facilitate OTA on/off and it also reduces overall equipment height, so more OTAs will fit under the shed door height and don't then need removal. I tried to get a slightly higher shed size, but the next one up was too big.

The latter is a good point, and something I hadn't considered. Cheers.

[mldee (Mike)]

Morning storm came sweeping up the valley to perform 70kph structural testing. Dunny Doo passed with flying colours, but my newly renovated greenhouse did not.

I was watching it out the kitchen window and thinking 'Hmm, looks pretty good' when it just lifted the whole roof, including ground stakes and steel sidings, 2M into the air, barrel-rolled it and deposited it on the ground next to my shed, basically still in one misshapen piece.

As I keep telling my friends when they visit, getting your vegies at Aldi is far easier.

[alan meehan (Alan)]

love it Mike ,i got to build a second observatory myself my other is overgrown with neighbours palm trees and there not going to get any smaller ,so iam relocating to the nth of my block and i might do something the same maybe a tad deeper it has to fit the 10inch newtonian in