Well, I just used a 7ft x 5ft garden shed. Plonked it on the lawn and put 3 dobs of concrete for the tripod legs to sit on once polar aligned. Never had to align it again. The "sliding" part of the roof was simplicity itself - I just balanced the roof on top of the walls, and weighed it down with 8 bricks
When I wanted to observe, just removed the 8 bricks and pulled the roof off towards me
The inevitable happened one day though....... A huge storm came through one afternoon, and the roof just flew off down the garden. BUT guess what??? The previous day, I had removed the scope into my garage for some reason I still can't fugure out
All the damage was bent roof, and
soaked star charts
I reassembled it with heavier bricks and included a rope over the roof tied down to large tent pegs
