[okiscopey (Mike)]

I've owned a 16-inch Lightbridge for ages, but it's had limited use in my ROR observatory due to lack of space and wall height. I'd added some castor wheels to the base, but that didn't help much in the observatory.

What to do? Hours of thinking about possible locations (well, half-an-hour) provided only one solution for protection, ease-of-use and sky view: the back of my concrete-block shed.

Too late to change my mind now ... the hole's already done!

I'd originally imagined having a door leading to a fixed 'catwalk' (dobwalk ... dobway?) but soon realised it'd be simpler for the 2.2m high and 0.9m-wide door to be hinged at the bottom and drop down to form the dobway, thus obviating an unwanted permanent obstruction in the garden.

A couple of screw-in legs (?) at the end of the dobway bearing onto a couple of pavers, or strip of concrete, should keep it level. To get a better view of the southern sky, the dobway will need a portable extension, maybe another 2 metres ... no particular problem methinks.

The ground slopes away a bit from the back of the shed, so the downside is that the eyepiece will sometimes be higher than usual, but I'm prepared to live with that.