in terms of simplicity and functionality the skyshed pods are hard to beat... however for the price you would have a lot more real estate in a garden shed.. you could easily have a desktop pc with a decent screen, a desk, a set of shelves for accessories, a sturdy concrete pier/pre-fab steel pier in the middle and still have room to move, swing cats, etc etc in a 2.4x3m shed with a roll off roof. at around the 1000 - 1500 mark...
The skyshed (from what I've seen) would be a tight squeeze with a 8" newt, pc, observer + just the necessary accessories... then you'd still be keeping alot of your gear inside the house, where its not easily accessible without bumping your scope on the way out the door...
I'd go with a 2.4x3m shed if I had somewhere to put it
Slightly different to what you are interested in but the pics will give you an idea of its general construction, upright centres less than 450, same for floors, corners 5 inch posts....... bombproof, ventilates well, opted to keep tripod as its rock solid, PLUS it can be moved out of the way for large dob if required.
Thanks for your input guys. It is much appreciated.
I'm still in the process of working out the design and size of the observatory. I am not sure how much space is needed to be able to move easily around the observatory without bumping the scope. I am thinking of a 3m by 2.5m cubby house with a warm room? I have already found a good spot for the observatory but I now need to whether I am being reasonable with the size?
I've googled many different observatory designs and am thinking about a split roll off roof design. I think it is much more practical.
Hi Matt,
I find my 2.4 x 3m plenty spacious to move around in.
Two things I would have done differently but, which I shall mention is instead of using timber to support the roof when rolled off, I would use metal as the wood even painted keeps moving and doesn`t stay square making the roof stick occasionally. Also use good flooring in the obs. I used only 12mm ply and even with bearers every 300mm it was too springy! With 2 layers its rock solid!
Just a tip that may help.
cheers Gary
Yeah I would use something around 10mm thick for flooring as a minimum.. and dont forget to dig a big fat square hole for the pier... deeper the better in most cases.. just make sure you dont hit any underground pipes or the like. 1.3 - 1.4m deep should be stable enough for any gear you would want to mount on top...
Or obviously just use your tripod, but make sure the area under the mounts legs are supported well...
I'm having second thoughts about a warm room. I'm not sure that I will have enough room to add one in. I'm wanting to have the warm room at least 1m arcross but that only leaves me with 2m for the scope. That is definitely not enough room.
Also, how high do I want the surrounding walls to be? I was thinking around 1.8m?
I'm having second thoughts about a warm room. I'm not sure that I will have enough room to add one in. I'm wanting to have the warm room at least 1m arcross but that only leaves me with 2m for the scope. That is definitely not enough room.
Also, how high do I want the surrounding walls to be? I was thinking around 1.8m?
Splitting 3m in to two rooms (warm and cool) sounds a bit tight to me. It all depends on what you want/need though. For me, that'd be too small. I use the "warm" half of my obs for storing portable astro equipment etc and more extensive computer usage than just the bare necessities to run the scope. 2m might be enough for your scope, but is it enough for the roof to move well enough out the way that you get a low wall height on the sides that the roof slides off? Worth considering.
My obs walls are about 1.8. It's a good height. However the pitch of my roof is quite a bit higher than 1.8, and a bit too high really as it obstructs north views significantly.
I went through this last year - settled on 2.4 x 2.1 m - quite tight, but not too bad. For flooring, just use proper floor sheeting, then you can go wrong - it will be 19mm at least thick.
