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Does the roof come off John? It does look pretty spacious.

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To answer the roof questions, no it does not come off, but each roo panel has two plastic skylights in it that are removeable. They are really small but i see no reason why they could no be enlarges.

The whole shed goes together quickly with something they call the Easy Bolt system, so the roof itself is not ancheored down at a lot of points. And the fact it is a resin shed, the roof panels, even though tehy are large almost 7'x 8', are not very heavy. I was able to lift them in place with no help. My guess is someone with a little ingenuity might be able to figure as easy way to convert this into a sliding roof type obeservatory for the back half of this shed.

Personally at this point, my observatory satifies two issues.....it gets my scopes out of the middle of the family room (MAJOR point), and it allows me to be up and observing quickly due to those doors on the side. Just pop open the door and step out into the yard with the fully set up scope and you're ready to go.

I've still got to work on issues like cooling the shed in the summer. I saw Chris's post on the colar powered vent fans and am thinking that is going to have to be my next mod to this building as I imiagine it is going to heat up some, though it is quite large inside, 11"x 7", so I'm hoping the sheer size alone will keep it a bit cooler than other sheds. Plus the skylights can also be poppped open to vent the top as well.

All in all, I'm very please with this building.

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John Glover
Napervile, IL

Orion 120ST, WO 102ED/SV, Vixen A70Lf, WO ZS66SD
Celestron ASGT and SLT, Vixen Porta
PST
ETX105
DSH6

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That is really neat, and the bay window is really cute.

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Looks great! Where did you actually buy it from (looks like the manufacturer doesn't sell direct)?

I was just looking at this other thread last night that I think is the same shed, several posts down the OP mentions how he can get half of the roof to slide open...

Hmmmm....hubby was talking the other day about building me an observatory, this might work just as well! Funny when it's the wife that's into the hobby, but the husband still wants to help with the toys and accessories...

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Hi Steph,

This shed came from Menard's. The sheds were on sale through next Tuesday here, $799. The one cool thing about this shed also is the company also make a 4.5' extension that can be inserted into the middle....actualy I guess you could ad as many extension modules as you wanted, so as your scope collection grows, you just expand your building!

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John Glover
Napervile, IL

Orion 120ST, WO 102ED/SV, Vixen A70Lf, WO ZS66SD
Celestron ASGT and SLT, Vixen Porta
PST
ETX105
DSH6

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John, I've looked at those sheds and I'm convinced that the roof can fairly easily be modified to come off.

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Very nice John
If I was to do it all over again, that's the shed I would have used, it's amazing how fast it feels up with Astro stuff. I have added four wall vents, plus four solar powered roof vents and insulated the ceiling, the temp difference now is 10° max between outside and inside of shed. Next time though, I would use more powerful solar roof vents, the ones I’m using are rather anemic. The wall vents really help by providing a cross flow of air in the shed and the roof insulation alone made a huge impact, before you could actually feel the heat radiating off of the roof panels.

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I *almost* bought the same shed as you Chris, then I saw this one. What sold me on this shed was the size of it, the interior storage possibilities and the multiple doors to move gear in and out. I'm still considering whether I want to remove one of the roof panels to turn the shed into a sliding roof type of observatory. Right now i'm happy with just setting the gear outside, but when the weather turns a bit colder here in Chicago, the sliding roof option will get serious consideration!

I'm dissappointed to hear the solar fans do not work as you thought they would. They looked like such a good option for cooling the shed. I've got to come up with something here as it does get quite warm inside. Both Home Depot and Menard's keep trying to sell me a solar powered attic vent, but that is designed for a 1200 sq.ft. attic and Im afraid that might suck my scopes out the vent!!

The roof insulation is an excellent idea though and I'm definitely going to do that mod to the shed next weekend. Good luck and your obsevatory does look terrific!!

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John Glover
Napervile, IL

Orion 120ST, WO 102ED/SV, Vixen A70Lf, WO ZS66SD
Celestron ASGT and SLT, Vixen Porta
PST
ETX105
DSH6

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Thanks for kind comments John, I wouldn't be afraid of having to much venting, I kept adding until I got the desired affect. I do plan on blocking most of it during the winter months. As to winter my idea is to have a small electric heater in the shed during viewing sessions for taking notes and checking star maps and so on while the scope stays nice and cool outside. I have dark panels that I used last winter when I did my viewing form the driveway, and they do a nice job of blocking the wind as well. So my plan this winter is to set them around the door end of the shed to block all direct wind and still have a warm room in the shed.

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