Astrophotography Trailer

[MikeAU85]

This is the best section of the forum to post this in I think, so hopefully this is correct!

Basically my Dad and I do a fair bit of Astrophotography in Victoria and got sick of sitting out in the cold all night with the mosquitos, so we purchased an old Ambulance body which we're currently converting to an astro trailer!

Pictures attached of the work so far, we now have a chassis on the trailer and a lot more work has been done, I'll grab some photos tomorrow and upload them too.

The trailer has been setup with a desk on either side, on desk will be for laptops etc, the other will be setup with 2 x 22" monitors and a desktop PC for imaging. The plan is to have a wiring loom from the trailer to the pier so it should be very fast to have everything up and running. Red LED lights have been installed inside which power off a deep cycle battery which is solar trickle charged.

[DavidTrap]

Great idea.

Have a look on cloudy nights. Some impressive Cargo trailer conversions by the yanks.

DT

[Dennis]

Nice one Mike – what a cool project!

Cheers

Dennis

[OzEclipse]

This one looks pretty impressive to me! Well done to Mike and his dad.

Joe

[h0ughy]

LOL an ambo body - i hope you kept the lights so you can rush to the dark sky site!!! What an awesome project and sure to get many a jealous eye from other astro tragics, me included

[Mighty_oz]

Wow wish my dad/sons and i had done stuff like that :) Lucky guys.
Keep the pics coming looks great.

[MikeAU85]

A few more pics!

The first picture is fairly obvious... We've started to apply plate to the top to cover up a few holes, still need to do the other side and one more bit on the left side.

The second picture shows the desk on the left hand side of the trailer which has a fold up desk leaving storage underneath for sleeping equipment. If you look directly above the desk you can see the light defuser, each desk has red LED strip lighting above it which can be controlled via the main switch panel (Pic 3). We also left the chair in that came with the ambulance body which can flip the other way and fold down to make a bed. Store panels can be seen above too. The windows at each side of the trailer have 2 pieces of tinted perspex with a pair of blinds inside them so can be closed during the night.

The third picture shows the main switch panel with the 12 bus bars and most of the wiring for the trailer. Each side of the trailer also has 2 ethernet ports and a 12v cigarette lighter socket for accessories. The right side also has 2 USB ports mounted on the wall to copy the photos onto a USB stick when we're done, the PC will be mounted under a desk so it will not be that easy to get to.

The forth picture shows the front of the trailer with the new chassis which we had made up.

[LewisM]

I always said that IF we moved to a dark place, with some land, i would either convert an old caravan or a shipping container into an obervatory / bunk room.

Shipping container probably suits me better (big locking mechanism to keep the 2 legged vermin out), easily convertible roof, long enough to partion off to have a bunk area with a closing door or fly screen to keep the bities out while you sleep and let the system run - air conditioned naturally.

Ambo trailer is a GREAT idea.

[Nico13]

Great idea and looking good.
Might have to put air con of some sort in for those hot nights when you're inside away from the bities though.
Then you'll want a generator like the one I just picked up from good old Aldi for $299 a 2200 W with 12V 8A out. A bit bigger than I needed but for the price I couldn't refuse.:lol:

[MikeAU85]

It comes with aircon in the peak at the front ;) Just needs wiring up correctly. For the power we have a deep cycle battery in there currently, might add another eventually. Once we're onsite we can power it via the mains anyway.