7 replies to this topic

[pvh]

I'm really bad about taking pictures while I'm doing things so here's a video halfway done 

 

https://youtu.be/MWN1Elf_Q6s

 

I had built a pier last fall, this spring my birthday present to myself is building out the observatory.

 

I dug out and framed with 2x6's a 8' x 10' pad for a shed advertised to be 7.5' x 9.5'. I laid down about 2 inches worth of rock, a vapor barrier, laid out conduit to the existing pier and to a future pier location. I masked the pier location using a 5 gallon bucket and walled off the existing pier with a 5 gallon bucket to maintain isolation. I had a yard of concrete delivered (cheaper than DIY: the cost of sackrete and renting a mixer for a day would have been more expensive) and I did my best to level it off. We had rain about six hours later, I preemptively covered the concrete in leftover vapor barrier as it rained for another 2 days. Pulled the vapor barrier up and, well, the concrete ain't much but it'll work. 

 

I removed the buckets and cleaned up around the wood frame and moved the shed on to the pad so I could check my visibility to the south, which is the higher end of the slanted roof shed. The height of the shed is roughly the height of the privacy fence behind it, but about 12" closer to the telescope. I was pleased to see my Excel math wasn't too far off, I could see the tips of the trees to the south peeking above the south wall of the shed. Inclinometer measures about 23 degrees to the top of the trees so if I placard to 25 degrees in software I should be just fine. To the east I can get down to 13 degrees, treeline to the north is about 30 degrees and to the west it's 45-ish.

 

Album: Pier

14 images

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Album: Observatory

16 images

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I need to get the doors on the shed and do some concrete clean-up (angle grinder with concrete grinding wheel) around the pier locations and a few other places where the concrete came out wavier than I had hoped. I plan on dumping rock around the pad to help with drainage - in Alabama we get our rain in bursts and the backyard is sloped so we do occasionally get runoff but it mostly routes other ways through the yard.

 

The plan for the roof: originally, I was planning on cribbing off of HenkSB's lid roof design. I think I may have gone too big with my shed and that may be unwieldy, but this weekend I plan on building up a frame to support the roof and testing it. But I think the route I will wind up going is having rails that align with the slope of the lean-to and sliding the roof down and up. I do some metal fabricating as a hobby so it's within my wheelhouse. The idea in my head is to use 1x2 steel tubing as the rails, CNC some UHMW sliders, and then have a lip on the bottom of the roof which positively retains when emplaced, but can be pushed up an inch to hop the ridgeline and lower.

 

The 10-day forecast vacillates between mostly cloudy and mostly rain so plenty of time to keep working on this bit by bit.  

 

philip

Edited by pvh, 15 May 2025 - 09:49 AM.

[Victory Pete]

Looks good, I have been dealing with mostly cloudy, mostly rain forecasts since I broke ground 2 months ago. I see we ultimately make progress, slow but sure.

[HenkSB]

Good progress on the shed and slab!  So, you decided to make it a ROR instead of a SOR (Slide-Off Roof, like mine)?  Or are you going to flip the roof up and down?  It looks like you are going for a ROR, will it have ground support beams?  An 8'x10' would not work because of the weight but an 8'x10' ROR should be no problem.  Also, an 8' side a SOR might be blocking your North views.

 

Are you going to move that North door to one of the sides?  Leaving it would not work with a SOR and would still be awkward with a ROR to get inside, I think. Does that shed come with two doors in the open sections, or are those section just open so you can move the thing around?

 

A wooden frame would sag quite a bit if a 2x2 needs to support a 10' width in the center, any thoughts?

 

Does the roof with support beams give enough clearance for a scope on your pier?  Will it allow 12" or 14" OTAs?  You can always put some 4x4s underneath the walls if necessary.

 

Sorry about the questions - I'm just curious, it looks like you have a solid handle on the project.  Once you have the frame and sliders in place it should be operational pretty quickly.

[pvh]

Good progress on the shed and slab!  So, you decided to make it a ROR instead of a SOR (Slide-Off Roof, like mine)?  Or are you going to flip the roof up and down?  It looks like you are going for a ROR, will it have ground support beams?  An 8'x10' would not work because of the weight but an 8'x10' ROR should be no problem.  Also, an 8' side a SOR might be blocking your North views.

 

Are you going to move that North door to one of the sides?  Leaving it would not work with a SOR and would still be awkward with a ROR to get inside, I think. Does that shed come with two doors in the open sections, or are those section just open so you can move the thing around?

 

A wooden frame would sag quite a bit if a 2x2 needs to support a 10' width in the center, any thoughts?

 

Does the roof with support beams give enough clearance for a scope on your pier?  Will it allow 12" or 14" OTAs?  You can always put some 4x4s underneath the walls if necessary.

 

Sorry about the questions - I'm just curious, it looks like you have a solid handle on the project.  Once you have the frame and sliders in place it should be operational pretty quickly.

Good morning! 

 

When I was looking for the lean-to style sheds I could either get a 5x7 or a 7x9. I felt like the 5x7 was too small and was concerned the 7x9 would be too unwieldy to manhandle.

 

The concept (on paper - steel pickup tomorrow, weather-pending fab) is to have a length of 1x1" angle iron sloped along the roofline extending out and down following the slope of the roof, forming rails on either side of the shed. The roof panel is 7.8 feet long and the angle iron comes in 20' lengths, so plenty of excess. The CONOPS would be to enter the shed, release latches securing the roof-lid, push the lid up and slide it down the rails. So it's kind of a lazy hybrid between a ROR and SOR insofar as I'm not mechanically attaching it to the rails. I can't just tip it over because the roof length in that direction is 2 feet longer than the height of the shed. That being said being in Alabama we average 55" of rain a year and it's not unheard of to get multiple inches of rain (often driving in with wind) over a 24 hour period; I think the "lid" method of sealing has greater interference to prevent water intrusion from driving rain, more easily than a true RoR.

 

 

I kept the north door where it is for now. There is a second door on the west side. I could move it to the east side if I modified the frame, but one door is enough. (the other empty section on the south wall by the fence line was alternate door location, I didn't put the wall in place until I was convinced I had everything right)

 

Right now, I have the roof mocked up in the garage using furring strips (1"x2" wood used for various construction things), I found the most warped ones I could at the Home Depot and I used that to my advantage to push the center of the roof up. I fully plan to replace those later, likely with a steel frame. I want to see the thing mocked up and convince myself I haven't missed something before welding.

 

It will accommodate my C-11 OTA when parked. I have plans for a second pier which could be lower if needed to accommodate something like a bigger imaging Newtonian, but no immediate plans for that.

 

philip

Edited by pvh, 20 May 2025 - 10:09 AM.

[pvh]

Finally got steel - the 1x1 angle is something they always have on hand but the thin gauge 1"x2" rectangular tubing they get from their distributor. The distributor quoted it two weeks ago for next day delivery... two weeks later it finally arrived. 

 

 

So here's a mockup with 1"x1" angle iron. The angle iron basically sits on the shed with the rib down. Those are 20' sticks I have not trimmed. I took some scrap angle iron and drove it into the ground and clamped it as a temporary hold so I could visualize. There will be two crossbeams, one at the back of the shed and one at the front of the shed, so the weldment will sit on top of the shed and project forward to some future pillars.

 

 

For visual I placed the roof on top - it sags quite a bit with the 1x2 furring strips - but the rectangular 1x2 steel tubing will replace it, with a thin enough wall gauge where I can drill it and let the screws that shipped with the kit self-tap. So I'll build up as a carriage that rides on the angle iron, when I'm happy with it I'll bolt on the roof top.

 

I spent a half hour with a concrete grinder trying to get rid of the high spots.

 

PTO tomorrow, we'll see how far I get!

 

philip

[pvh]

Like I said, I'm pretty bad about taking progress pictures, but this morning I welded the guide rails that mount on the roof of the shed and emplaced it with the help of my wife and son (not heavy, just awkward). Once in place I clamped down the steel crossbeams and guide rails for the "sled" the roof mounts to and welded that in place. After that my wife helped me place the roof on top, lined it up, and gave it a test run. 

 

Roof retracted: https://youtu.be/ZjG_9UfDydk

 

 

Roof deployed: https://youtu.be/kRfR3uRtTKw

 

 

Inside views

 

 

Street view - acceptable; I plan on painting the white vents to match. Also, you can see the shed colors were a natural match for our house

 

 

Next actions: Right now the roof is sitting on the sled, but is not mechanically attached. I want to add a ridge running along the centerline of the roof to help with the sag on the furring strips (which will replaced with PVC extrusion). This will prevent the need to have the cross bars "hop" over the north roofline. I also need to add the UHMW sliders and then paint everything, add bolt holes to the sled and physically attach the roof. Then it will be basically ready to go, after a few additional weather sealing activities.

 

I think we're going to call it the Star Shed.

Edited by pvh, 25 May 2025 - 04:28 PM.

[HenkSB]

Thanks for the videos!  I see you have put one door on the West side, nice.  Quite a bit of complications compared to a simple lid though, with the gaps and fortifications.  But you sure know how to make things work and get them done. 

 

I think you can have the posts closer to the wall so long as you stay outside the center balance point, for a better look. 

 

I did glue some yoga mat foam in the door opening to close the gap for any rain coming in, in your climate you need to do something too.  And I'm curious how well your roof is sealed without adding sealant around the screws and panel rims.  But hey, you got something done pretty quick unlike many other ROR projects.

[pvh]

First light last night!

 

But going back to the weekend, here's a walk-about of the weldment I made on which the roof sits: 

 

https://youtu.be/0jKCxTMgm9s

 

I added some pictures to the gallery.

 

 

90% complete, functional for now using wifi and a power cord stretched across the backyard, but I have a few weeks of personal and work travel coming up so it's sufficient for now. After that slate of travel I need to rent a ditch witch and cut a path in the ground to the shed so I can direct bury power and ethernet (and knock out an irrigation project) and then dialing in the sliding mechanism - right now it's a little herky-jerkey I'll either use UHMW plastic sliders or install wheels, havent made up my mind yet. But it works for now! last night was mostly debugging, got to watch a mostly successful meridian flip and get some luminance subframes. Need to set up parking, focus offsets for filters and then hopefully get some imaging on M101 for a few hours. 

 

thanks for following along - will update when I make the next round of improvements.

 

philip