Quote:
Originally Posted by Lismore Bloke
An observatory need not be elaborate and expensive. The well known visual observer, glenc lives not far away from me. He uses a zincalume 3mx3m garden shed. The walls are cross braced for strength. A steel fabricator can make up some rails for the roof to run off. These sheds are cheap as chips and sometimes can be picked up for nothing when someone needs to dispose of one.
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I guess that the problem with the lightweight garden shed units Paul is security. With tens of thousands-worth of gear (high-end mount, 3 x Takahashis, SBIG cameras and computers) kept inside (otherwise - what's the point?) it must be a very solid unit that discourages (as best it can) break-ins. A garden shed in my area screams "I've got stuff inside worth jumping the fence for!". Also, roll-offs tend to just let all the dust in the neighbourhood in as their roof seal is inherently poor by design. You can rubberise the edges and seal them to an extent, but your scopes still end up really dusty after a good wind.
Solution - buy land way out of the city and put up a solid steel 4m dome!
I plan to eventually build mine on my place near Cooma. Only problem is that it's 4.5 hours away each time I want to go... Oh, it's all very difficult and Catch-22-ish. LOL!