Convert a plastic shed into a ROR

[pmrid]

A short while ago, I said I would document the process of converting one of these plastic sheds into a compact ROR for use at my suburban location.

Here goes:

The shed is a Keter “Darwin” 4 x 6 (made in Israel and sold by Bunnings for $829 plus $90 shipping. It took only about 3 hours all up to put together and I was able to do it myself except for getting the last roof panel in place which required a second set of hands.

The external width is just 1250 and the available internal (after the mods I will be making) will be just a smidgen under 1100 after I install framing for the rails and runners so it will be a tight fit for a lot of scopes. I hope it will take my 8 inch newt which has an OTA of 900mm length. Overall height to the apex of the roof is 2050mm so I will probably need to define a horizontal home position for the longer scope.

I won’t progress to the next phase until the rollers I have on order from Amazon turn up which could be up to 3 weeks.

I’ll post some more when they turn up.

I’ll attach some before-and-after pics so you can see the space constraints I am working with.

[seeker372011]

Following this thread with great interest!

[Bassnut]

This is very interesting, Im looking now to do something similar. I notice you have it on a concrete path. I found in my situation, with the same concrete pathway, that what appears like separate slabs is just a continuous pour path with 10mm slots cut in it which Im thinking is enough stable mass just to bolt a pier to the path instead of a tedious 1 m or so cubic separate concrete block for the pier. What are you going to do?.

[pmrid]

Yes Fred. A bolt-down pier with a 300x300 base into a 100mm path and concrete apron should be quite adequate for scopes of my size. I hope.

[strongmanmike]

Looking good Peter, looks like a great solution for your space there :thumbsup: In regard to what Fred is saying, I think many of us who won't actually spend much time near our scopes, over engineer our support piers (https://pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/172436824/original) :question: :rolleyes: :lol: If on the other hand you plan to walk around while your scope is imaging or indeed look through it, while standing on the same bit of concrete, well, that's a little different and while a monolithic monstrosity may not be required, I think good isolation from your feet and body weight is indeed a good idea, I've seen the effects of not doing this :thumbsup:

Mike

[pmrid]

G’day Mike. I have a sure-fire solution to those “walking around blues”. It’s called ASiair Plus. I’m a convert - brought about mainly because I have become a comfort-seeking armchair imager. 😁😁

[strongmanmike]

:lol: Cool... I look forward to choosing a new armchair ;)

Mike

[DarkArts]

Looks like a good, affordable compromise given the limited space. If worst comes to worst, you could hire a concrete cutter to make a hole and allow for isolation of your pier from the slab around it (hopefully, the shed will cover the unsightly bits).

Are you planning on rolling off just the roof, or, since it's plastic, rolling the whole thing away on tracks? It looks a bit too small for a ROR.

[pmrid]

Interesting idea but it hadn’t occured to me. Being a bit wise after the event, I don’t think the plastic structure would have enough structural integrity without 4 walls holding it together.

[Bassnut]

well yes, correct. ive had both isolated and non-isolated piers. At long FL anyway, you wouldnt want to walk on any non-isloated concrete near a pier, its bad. Im not intending to because of this. Interestingly, itelescope has just one gigantic god knows how thick concrete slab at its siding spring Obs and its fine. no one stomps around on it though (while imaging).

[pmrid]

Well, baby steps perhaps but I’m not going to rush it either. The base plates on both sides are in and bolted down to the concrete. Also, the top plates (which will hold the track for the rollers) on both sides are also in. I’ll install base and top plates at the end this afternoon. When I recover I’ll think about somer vertical supports also but Sunday tomorrow and I’d better focus on domestic harmony.

EDIT: Domestic harmony on hold! More framing instead. See added pics.

[pmrid]

OK! Next steps:

The pier arrived yesterday so the pressure is on.

Today, I have started the frame of the external rails. The support posts are 100x100 treated pine sitting in a plastic stirrup. At this stage, I am undecided about how to fix that into the concrete. By the time I have finished, it should weigh about 80 Kgs and be anchored to the shed frame itself,. So it may not be necessary.

I have made saddles into which the rails are fastened and those in turn are bolted into the shed frame. Pretty solid. The rails are a bit under 2000 long and are 70x45. To stiffen them up a bit, I will fasten a 1800 length of 25mm angle iron underneath. That should prevent any warping, I hope.

I’ll fit some cross-bracing between the end posts and that should prevent any tendency to wobble about.



.

[pmrid]

Cross-braced and screwed into position.

In the middle of this, my EQ6 fell over with a mighty crash. I don’t know whether it suffered any internal damage but with my luck ….. the ‘ crash’ happened the day after my pier arrived. How about that for luck!

[pmrid]

OK! That’s as far as I can go for the moment. The angle iron rail bracing is in and the T-track is ready. Just waiting for the rollers to arrive now and the Amazon delivery estimate is any time in the next 20 days. No idea where they’re coming from.

[Bassnut]

This is all looking good Peter, excellent work!

[strongmanmike]

Looking like a real observatory there Peter :) :thumbsup:

Sorry to hear about the mount, hope it isn't damaged, have you inspected it yet?

Mike

[pmrid]

Not yet. TBH, I’m a bit afraid to.

[strongmanmike]

I understand, I'd feel the same :scared2:

[pmrid]

Well Mike, it seems the mount has suffered some internal damage - probably a mixture of mechanical and electrical. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. After all the planning, effort and expense of building the ROR, to have the mount fall over onto concrete seems just too bloody cruel.

I’ll just have to do a full strip and rebuild and hope the problem reveals itself along the way.

[strongmanmike]

Ah, sorry to hear that Peter, that's bad news :doh: do you have accidental damage cover in your insurance? I have always had this because of my astro gear, in case of a dropped mount, telescope or CCD camera etc or any other potential way of accidentally damaging expensive gear.

Mike

[pmrid]

Thanks mate. I’ll check it out. The hard part will be finding someone who can inspect and report on it for the insurer. It’s not something your local sparkie could be expected to handle. It may be cheaper in the long run to just get out the credit card.

[pmrid]

For those still following this thread, I have reached a stopping point. I cannot find another tweak I can make until the rollers arrive - now promised for next week. Heaven knows where they came from. China I suppose.

I have made a template for the pier base (see picture) and cut away a section of the plastic flooring for it. As you can see from the image attached, putting a pier on top of this would be a big mistake.

The pier base has 16mm holes - probably to allow a bit of wiggle room - and I have drilled out 12mm holes for Dyna Bolts. But these can wait until I have installed rollers and cut off the roof from the base.

But all in all, it is a kind of progress. It just isn’t as rapid as I would have liked.

[pmrid]

Mike, good news on the accident insurance front. Just waiting on Sirius Optics in Brisbane to furnish a report. Looks like a complete write-off so I am hoping to see a Skywatcher EQ6-R Pro (if they ever arrive) since it has the belt drive and although mine was only an EQ6 Pro, I had fitted Rowan belt drives to it. If the insurer will replace like-for-like, I should be able to hope for the R Pro.

Of course, there are none to be had this side of July I believe so I won’t be holding my breath.

[pmrid]

I did warn that progress would be slow!

Some but not all the rollers arrived today - a mere 4 Amazon weeks. Out of 10, I received 6. It’ll have to do - 3 a side. Should be fine!

It’s too late to annoy the neighbours with the cutting-off of the roof so that’s a job for tomorrow.

Getting there!

[strongmanmike]

Piano piano :)

[pmrid]

Noted!

[pmrid]

Yahoo! It’s alive Doctor! It moves! O.K. there is a little bit of instability now that the roof is no longer providing structural strength - but what the hell. Nothing that a bit of a fiddle can’t solve.

[pmrid]

Pier and mount in place.

Now this IS progress!

[strongmanmike]

Hey, that looks like a proper observstory now :thumbsup:

Mike

[strongmanmike]

Hey, that looks like a proper observstory now :thumbsup:

Mike

[Bassnut]

Hey, that looks like a proper observatory now :thumbsup:

[Bassnut]

It does look very robust I must say, well done.

[pmrid]

Thanks Fred and Mike. Fred, your dome will look even better. Great project!

[sharpiel]

I am so jealous. Of all you Obs Jockeys actually. I like the concept of the RoR to allow a great view of the whole sky. Can't wait to one day make the final move to my own "Foreverness" and then I'll build an obsy too.

Taking notes... Taking notes...

[pmrid]

The critical moment today - fitting the F8 200mm GSO newt. The OTA is 900mm long BUT when fitted out with ASI focuser , CCD etc, and when tilting it to 27.1 degrees (my latitude) you change the dynamics a lot - enough certainly to swallow up what I thought was my clearance margin. In short, I have to cut away some of the internal bracing I installed. And to add insult to injury, cutting off the roof meant the structural integrity of the base was seriously compromised. So I am now installing extra anchor bolts, and bracings. And I nearly forgot - the scope sits too tall in the mount to allow it to clear the roof at the CWD home position. No big deal. Just a nuisance.

[pmrid]

Well folks, it’s as near a damn-it to being operational. It rains here every 15. minutes of so making it hard to get much of a go on. But there is enough of a clearance for the scope to track and do meridian flips without crashing. So that’s a “pass” in my book. If it does crash for some reason, I may need to go to a more compact scope - like a SCT for example. But as soon as we get an hour or two of sky, I will take it for a shakedown cruise. The proof of the pudding being in the eating!

[strongmanmike]

Bah!!...plenty of room! :lol: :prey:

[pmrid]

:thumbsup:

[Hemi]

I’ve been following along silently Peter, great idea and execution so far. Well done. As already said looks like a proper observatory now.

I went down a ready made route a while back, but am tempted to do a diy roll off for the fun and challenge of it. Very inspirational.

Cheers

[pmrid]

I’m delighted that you found this of interest. If you decide to have a go, don’t hesitate to ask for any tips or suggestions I can give.

[pmrid]

Not quite. I managed to get everything going for a few hours tonight. What a relief. UNTIL it came to meridian flip time. I was hoping ASiair’s automated flip would work despite the narrow clearance with this scope. Nope. I could always do it manually of course but that defeats much of the purpose of the ASiair. If this OTA was about 100mm shorter, it would be fine. But it ain’t!

Bugger! So my 8inch newt will go back into the cupboard and I’ll go back to using my widefield rig - which will work just fine.

I might end up buying something like an 8 inch Celestron HD Edge or similar. I’m fairly sure it would be OK. Does anyone have one? Can you tell me how far back the focal plane is behind the back of the scope?

[pmrid]

Well, this seems a fair compromise - a StellarVue 110mm F7. It’s close but at least it will do the meridian jig without crashing into something. Now for some sky!

EDIT: Cancel that. It’s still too long for my obs. Sooo frustrating.

[gb44]

Peter,
I had a small shed like that once and I housed a big newtonian in it with a GEM. I rolled the whole shed away and it was great -- you do have room to roll that shed away...
Maybe the back wall could become the door and some tie down points located in the slab.
A lot of work but then no constraints about the OTA you can house.
Just another opinion!:question:
GlennB

[pmrid]

Glenn, because I am an incurable tinkerer, I will think about your suggestions far too much for my mental health! But I will anyway!


Peter

[pmrid]

OK! Finally got a good balance between total length of rig and the internal dia of the obs. The answer was I bought a SharpStar 94EDPH f5.5 triplet with a custom flattener/0.82Reducer that screws into the drawtube making it effectively a quatro (Petzval-like) system at f4.4. Good aperture, fast optics and very well corrected to 44mm image diameter and free of CA.

And so the forecast just went from bad to worse.

[Bassnut]

Its a shame you had to compromise, but thats a sweet scope!. It looks like you have a heap of scopes in stock now!.

[pmrid]

Ha!
In order to maintain domestic harmony, I work on the revolving door principle - scope goes out, new scope allowed in. Balance and harmony!

Mostly!

[pmrid]

Added a new member to the “heap” with this C11 - an older model but well cared for and it actually fits into my tiny obs. So I am set up for some galaxies and planetaries.

[astrobarn]

Fantastic work, really inspiring for improving domestic harmony.
Do you think you will add some form of automation to the open/close in future?