Hello All,
For a while I've been interested in setting up an observatory, as like most I'm not too fond of setting the gear every night for a session. I had considered various alternatives:
- an outdoor pier and mount covered when not in use
- cutting a hole in the garage roof
- cutting a hole through the upstairs roof
Whilst upstairs assessing the work associated with cutting a hole in the upstairs metal deck roof, a much easier solution dawned on me: rework an existing skylight that I had built as part of a previous (still unfinished renovation).
We have an old (~1900) single storey Federation home and probably about 10 years ago we added a modern light/open 2 storey renovation, but didn't build the new 2-storey structure any higher than the existing single storey roof line to maintain street front appearance. This was possible thanks to some very high ceilings in the old section of the house. Anyway.... what this meant is that the 2nd storey floor (in the new section) was actually about 600mm below the existing ceiling level in the old part of the house. So what did I do? I cut a small access door through the 2nd floor wall to allow me to get in to the roof space in the old section to use it for storage. I also added a small ~0.9m square opening skylight in the tile roof for natural light and roof service. After a while the small access door in the wall grew in to a full height and very wide doorway and attic passage linking the 2nd storey of the new addition to the Roof/ Attic space of old section of the house. This attic passage was full height (~3m) with an overhead essentially flat large glass skylight above (~1.5m x 1.8m).
More to follow with pics...
Best
JA