[The_bluester (Paul)]

OK, it is time to get ahead of myself!

I have been working on the idea of a RORO shed for some time and not really expecting to get the OK from my wife, but she surprised me recently by more or less asking why I had not started yet!

I plan to make space for at least two scopes on piers, my own CPC925 mounted on a wedge (Which I think I will design and construct myself as I reckon I can do cheaper and better than the Celestron one for a fixed mount) and a mates AP rig, think in terms of about 900mm FL refractor, currently used on a tripod when he comes out to my place to escape LP from Melbourne.

What would be the minimum width of shed people would consider (Length is another issue completely, more on that later) to mount the refractor in the middle, point it at the horizon (Which won't be visible) and allow space for set up/working on it etc. Basically, how much "Walking around" space outside the envelope the scope will occupy would you want to have in an ideal world?

The second question would be wall height, how low to the horizon would you consider imaging? I am hoping to have the walls high enough to block stray light from car headlights as we are on a bend in a road and headlights sweep our place from side to side all the time. I was also thinking that matte black paint on the inside would be a good idea to help cut that problem even further, at least for the top half of the walls. Ideal wall height would allow a normal door to be used under the roll off roof without bumping your head!

My wife also made the suggestion of a section of the shed partitioned off from the scopes and weather protected (The length issue) to allow for a couple of bunks for those long imaging sessions! (I think she just wants us to stay out there and stop bumping around the house at 3AM looking for whiskey) If I were to add a bunkhouse, is there value in cable extensions so that laptops for imaging could be put in there? I can see an obvious benefit in reduction of stray light when capturing images if laptop screens were out of the way with walls between them and lense, but does it matter?

Piers, I plan a concrete floor in this for cleanliness, is there real value for imaging if the pier is isolated form the shed floor? I have a 12" post hole auger on a tractor which I can sink to about 800mm to put in a footing for a pier, am I best off to carry this 12" above the ground a little (Thinking of stubbed toes here) and use the rubber isolator/expansion strips they use nowadays in concreting to prevent contact between the floor slab and pier base? Visually I can not see it making any real difference, but photographically? I would hate for us to have to spend the night making sure to sit still to keep vibrations at bay.

This could end up more comfy than my house, but I will only get one shot at this, so any other suggestions for an ambit claim for the "Features"?

This is also going to be a project of quite some time in the making, probably starting with piers and then a slab and finally a shed, but if I am going to move to that last stage and build a shed over it all then I need to get the dimensions right from the beginning.