Here are the reasons I made it 6ft off the ground. 1) I wanted to get up off the ground which is at the lowest spot in my yard, getting out of the vapor. I can turn a hammer in to rust in no time back there. 2) I didn't want rodents under living under it and I doubt a mouse can inside. 3) The extra lift off the ground gave me a little more visibility over my tree line, not much but it helps. 4) Resale of my property will be boosted as this thing would make a wonderful play/tree house—as somebody may not want an observatory. 5) my last reason was that the area I built it was once a flood plane, and not far from a creek, so I wanted it up out of danger. Isn't it funny how our priorities change? Reason #5 quickly became reason # 1. Thats right, I almost named it Uraniborg (see pic). It figures that right after I get the structure done but before the roof is on, it pours for days like we haven't seen for hundreds of years. I hope this observatory is good at catching rare celestial events too
My shed has a trap door instead of a front door. I used a pull down attic ladder as my steps. That works pretty well. I thought it was easier than a door until I built the trap door cover. At that point I think I added work for myself—but I like it and it offers extremely good venting for cool down
When I get around to adding this to my web page, I'll post some links.