After much procrastination, my home observatory is finally underway. My biggest difficulty was deciding on the location, as having a fairly small yard, there were limited options available.
I decided on the south-west corner of the yard, where I had a small 5’ by 6’ garden shed. The benefit of this spot was that,
i. It had the most sky visible out of the whole backyard
ii. I had pretty decent access to the northern sky, in comparison to where I normally set up in the middle of the yard, where the house blocks that part of the sky
iii. The existing brickwall feature will hide the observatory and not impede on the aesthetics of the yard
Because of the location I had selected, the “works” would need to be staged, as follows
1. Clear the apple, cherry and quince trees at the side of the house
2. Build a new garden shed at the side of the house
3. Dismantle existing shed and build the observatory in its place.
The design concept for the observatory that I had in mind was to eliminate the requirement for support posts and railing for the sliding roof. Instead, I decided on a sliding roof that will pivot and then hang at the end of the rail (with necessary safety precautions in place). I think I will be able to get away with this, as the roof area will be quite small (1500mm x 2000mm). I intend to frame the roof utilising either 70x35 timber, or if I can get it at a decent price, aluminium tubing.
As mentioned above, I really wanted to keep the existing brick wall intact, hence I had a very challenging envelope to work with. Basically, if I fitted the whole available area with the observatory, then I would have a slanted parallelogram floor plan, which would allow approximately 1600mm between the east and west walls. Later on, once the existing garden shed was removed, I did a trial set up within this area, which proved to be very tight but very do-able. I concluded that having a very small observatory was much better than not having one at all.
Due to the space constraints, I decided to pre-fabricate the east and west walls, then put them in place, and from there complete the rest of the structure.
At this stage, I will just have the EQ6 mounted on its tripod rather than going for a pier. Once I am happy with the position of everything, I may then consider a pier. I have completed a “jump test” whilst guiding with the DMK through the ED80, and no movement was noticeable on the graph.
One thing that I must add is that I am not a “handyman”. But, I am willing to give it a go, and basically, if I can do it, then anyone can!
So, at the end of the first few days, I am quite happy with the progress. I will now complete the door and then get a start on the roof. Cannot wait.
Thanks for looking.
Cheers,
Daniel
, and I just need the obs!!
