Very Amateur Astronomy

The Very Amateur Observatory

The VA Observatory is a roll off roof observatory shed built by myself by customising a second hand 8×6 shiplap shed. It was build over a week by myself and my wife.

Day 1 – Groundwork
The shed is going in the bottom corner of our small garden, replacing the old 6×4 shed we used to have. The first day was spent clearing the site and making ready.

Day 2 – The base

The concrete bases are down as is the base for the pillar.

Lessons learned

1. Get a cement mixer in or have it delivered, hand mixing is hard
2. Dig a deeper hole and make a cage so your threaded rod get more purchase.

Day 3 – The Floor

The underside of the second hand shed is showing signs of rot round the edges. All dodgy beams are removed and replaced and the bottom is then treated to help it last.

The top side is cleaned and treated as well and a hole cut for the pier

Lessons learned

1. Start with a new shed and save a day repairing something old.

Day 4 – The Walls

The walls are repaired, cleaned and painted. Towards the end of the day we put everything up and have something that looks like a shed!

Day 5 – The Frame

Building a frame for the roof to run on is a more complicated job and this is where I have to start thinking about what I’m doing. The frame needs to support the length of the roof and allow it to slide completely off of the shed itself. Internally the beams are supported by uprights with angled sections as you see on the outside in later pictures. The runners are made of lengths of aluminium section screwed into the top of the beams.

Externally the uprights at the end are in spiked shoes driven into the ground.

Lessons Learned

1. If you can afford it, do the beams with metal, wood bends and twists.
2. If you can’t then don’t copy me, purchase or make a pair of jacks as seen on the Sky Shed site. These then allow for adjustments to be made in the position of the frame.
3. If possible make you roof run off the shortest way, I had no choice but the problems mentioned above can be reduced by a shorter run.

Day 6 – The Roof

You will need to forgive me for this but this was a hugely long and tiring day and I neglected to get the camera out, which is a pity really, but the process for building the roof goes like this :

1. Cut two beams the length of the roof, these will be your runners.
2. Create A-Frames to support the roof  preferably with cutouts so they better sit on the runners.
3. Attach the A-Frames to the runners.
4. Attach your casters (I use 50mm fixed nylon casters, four to a side).
5. Spend hours working out how to attach the roof panels to the A-Frames without having to rebuild the entire thing
6. Attach the roof panels.
7. Ruin your spine by moving the entire roof arrangement onto your frame.
8. Use a mallet to get both panels and frames strait and aligned.
9. Cheer when it all miraculously works perfectly the first time.

Once you’ve done all that you have a rolling roof shed! I then used some shiplap timber to close up the front and create an overlap. The top of the front panel of the shed has been chopped off to allow the A-Frames to roll over it without hitting anything.

I was outside till gone dark doing the roofing felt and dropped an entire tub of pitch most of which pooled under the shed. It’s  now lurking beneath in a big sticky mess, slowly evolving into a malevolent life form.

You can see that I have used additional lengths of shiplap to create an overhang along the edge, it’s a bit messy behind the scenes but  from the the outside it is neat and sturdy.

The back of the shed is still something I remain unhappy about, but I think I have a plan for it now, copying the front for the most part.

The roof is held in place by four hook-eye turn buckles when closed, these are bolted at one end into the runners and at the other into the frame uprights.

Lessons Learnt

1. Yee gods is that roof heavy.
2. Make a lighter roof.
3. Your never going to get that down again.
4. At least the wind won’t blow it away.
5. Wear overalls when using pitch, that stuff is vile.
6. More wheels makes for a smoother rolling roof.
7. Use solid wheels (nylon) not soft (rubber).

And that’s about that for the main structure. There remains much to be done and this page will be updated as and when things change.

Views from the Shed!

Playing with the camera on a cloudy night, testing for a star trail photograph I have in mind.

The current setup, Orion Optics 10″ reflector on a Vixen Sphinx SX pier with the laptop on a temporary shelf in the corner. The Sphinx head can be removed and transferred to it’s portable pier without touching the alignment at all.