Looking at this , sick of lumping about and polar aligning my scope , was bad enough when I was using the 10" newt on my old CG5 on a steel tripod, but the Atlux is easily 3 or 4 times heavier than the old GEM (looking at head, with no counterweights only).
So , to preserve my back and avoid straining something, and make my time at the scope more productive I'm seriously looking at a garden shed that I will have modded so roof can be rolled off so I can set up the scope on the new GEM and also my old GEM on separate "permanent" pedestals all "under one roof.
I was considering putting my roll off roof observing shed right next to my garage (with a roll off skillion style roof and the north wall of the garage forming one wall of my shed , and having my piers footing below decklevel with my piers protruding through the deck ,with a deck built around the piers and above the ground as my floor (level with the top of my garage slab) but it looks like a suitable timber deck (3mx3m in this case) will be prohibitively expective (way outside what I am prepared to spend).
I may return to this but with a concrete slab rather than a above ground deck but I will loose a big bit of the low southern sky with this arrangement while gaining some more low north and west sky .... gain some loose some .... oh for a flat horizon or being on the top of a hill somewhere....
So I have reconcidered , and am now looking at a using a concrete slab as my base despite concretes poor thermal properties.
Situation
I have a very poor northern sky (high horizon, obscurred by the neighbour's garage somewhat, and badly light polluted (that's the general direct of Charlestown Square (if you live in Newcastle you know that place is lit up permanently like a Xmas tree)), my southern and Eastern sky are not too bad (considering I am in basin surrounded by hills) , and my house obscurs much of the western sky (but blocks a street light pretty much right infront of my house).
My lard slopes downhill from w --> e ( there's a 12" drop over 6m at my garage which typifies my back yard.
So I have little choice but to orientate my shed eastwest (long axis) and I am considering a 3.8mx2.4m shed at least or maybe a 3.8mx3.3m shed (depends on concreting costs , most likely choice due to space limitations in the yard is the smaller one).
I think I'll arrange the roof to roll off to the north (will need to be modded to effect this by adding a horizontal cross rafter at each gable end (see sheds c/- h0ughty ... thanks mate for finding that ....) rather than to the east which is the other possible direction but will require more materials.
I am hoping the total cost of my shed will not go much over $1000 including slab .
Those who gone down this path already ,
a) do you think these shed sizes are adequate or too cramped for two setups (one with a wideange sky patrol type camera platform based on the old CG5, one with the 10" f4.6 newt on the Altux) ?
b) has anyone bothered arranging their roll off roof shed so the SCP is always above the southern wall of their shed (once properly polar aligned you never need to see it again , though comets low in the southern sky sometimes come along and they may be lower than the SCP) .... thoughts anyone on this ?
c) parking the scope when not in use , how far is considered a minimum desireable clearance so the roof clears the mount and tube and what ever is on the tube safely when the roof is rolled back on , or off ?
ie my OTA has an OD of 316mm, so
when parked horizontal , is a clearance from the tube centreline of 200mm adequate ?
(assuming nothing on the tube will project above top of the tube in this orientation ....
....Probably a dum question
but it will govern the max height of the pier the Atlux will live on assuming I keep a big part of my low southern sky below the SCP.)
All this assumes the gable roof sheds I am looking have roofs that are light and I convince the company who makes these to make roof so it can be constructed as a separate module (that is reasonably rigid structurally ) from the shed and can be simply lifted onto the rails when these are ready. (C H E A P L Y ! !)