My wife wanted to share the night sky with me so she saved gold coins for two years and paid for a tin garden shed and the concrete pad to put it on.
The roof swings out in two parts and this turns out to be easy to do.
The construction was; erect the shed as per the Spandek instructions except that one side of the roof was not attached the the central ridge pole and the ridge pole was not fixed in the boxes on the end walls that receive the pole.
At the top of the walls and at mid height rings of wood were placed internally.
The mid height ring is cut out across the doorway Triangular plywood gussets were placed at the corners of the rings. Bracing was added to the roof halves.
The roof is opened by engaging a hook on a pole with an eye bolt at the centre of each side of the roof and near the ridge pole.
The roof is opened from the outside by engaging the hook in the eye of the bolt, levering the roof to vertical then walking away.
When open the western roof hangs down the side of the shed and the eastern roof sits on a pair of drums to enable access to the door.
The detailed steps of construction could be provided but they are pretty obvious, if anyone wants them they can ask.
The photos might help explain all this
p1c The finished shed in situ showing the vertical wall members to which the
roof hinged are attached.
p2c the shed opened during construction before the roof bracing was added.
This eastern side sits on those drums when the ob is in use
p3c the lever pole with the hook engaged in the eye bolt
p4 the western sid of the roof open shoing the complete roof bracing and the
wood to receive the screws holding the hinges to the roof
p5 the f5 6 inch new that my wife built sitting on the Heq5 Pro I upgraded from.
it also shows the wooden bracing rings and the box to receive the ridge
pole that is attached to the eastern side of the roof.
The power for the mount comes from the solar panel shown in p1c .It was interesting threading twin core wire through 6 metres of 12 mm poly pipe. This 12 mm pipe is then put inside some 25mm pipe ans the whole lot buried.
It supplies a 12 volt 35 amp hour battery in the ob which drives the mount. This all suitably fused.
The concrete floor is is covered with pallets unwanted by local merchants and this topped with 12 mm ply. This provides ventilation, raises the floor to a comfortable level for my wife to use the pier mounted 'scope and allows a wheelie observing chair to move easily.
So when my rig is taking photos I join Maureen in her shed and we look out, maybe using her dob or binoculars as well.
Chris
Last edited by muletopia; 28-12-2019 at 07:33 PM.
Reason: more info & typos
