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Thanks very much to everyone for their comments, suggestions and words of encouragement. I spent this afternoon at my brother-in-law's container yard and with the assistance of his modifications designer we made some good progress.
The main issue with shipping containers (heat dissapation) will be handled by a combination of reflective solarguard paint (white), 50mm foam insulation panels on the roof sections and the installation of a fan assisted whirlybird (which will pull in fresh air from vents in the floor). With this combination, we would hope to maintain sensible internal temperatures. Should that fail, then we still have the option of using a portable AC unit.
The idea of a sliding roof has now been replaced by a hinged design with the 2 halves of the observatory roof working in a clamshell type arangement. The attached partially completed pic shows the basic idea (it's obviously missing the other half of the roof / wall piece). This roof design was chosen for 2 reasons. Firstly, it achieves horizon - horizon views in the Eastern & Western directions (ie, the 2 sides of the container) and more importantly, it will be much cheaper than the original roll off roof design. The drawback is that the lower Nth and Sth altitudes will be obscured. I'll need to figure out the extent to see if this will be acceptable.
The floor of the telescope section will be 600mm higher than the "warm room" with gives plenty of potential storage space below the raised floor. It also gives me ~1800mm of head room when the roof is closed.
Based on Paul's comment regarding windows, I'm happy not to install any in the obs. It will reduce the internal heating and save construction $$$.
I still need to figure out the electrical and data cabling requirements but I don't think that should poose any problems.
I'll post updates as things progress.
Cheers, Matt.
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