Building Conversion to ROR Observatory

[JayTee]

Has anyone heard of or seen pictures of a home improvement store (Lowe's, Home Depot, Costco, etc) garden shed converted to an RoR observatory? If you have, could you share please.

Cheers,
JT

[SkyHiker]

Speaking of my latest garden shed, it is made of plastic. Great value and size wise it would work. However the roof provides structural strength to keep the whole thing together. It is attached with multiple screws and I am pretty sure the shed would slowly disintegrate if I turned it into a ROR. So I would opt for a wooden shed, maybe I am stating the obvious.

[pakarinen]

There are several examples and discussions on Cloudy Nights I think.

[Gordon]

Has anyone heard of or seen pictures of a home improvement store (Lowe's, Home Depot, Costco, etc) garden shed converted to an RoR observatory? If you have, could you share please.

Cheers,
JT

Is this something you will be using to remotely control the scope or do you want to use it to do visual observing? (or both).

[mcolbert]

I'm afraid that my only experiences with 'kit' sheds is not very good, when I have looked at them they appear to be highly unstable and insecure. (We have also lived in places with such sheds and this has just reinforced my opinion). What I've realised is that if I were to purchase something like that and use it as an observatory, I would have to spend more time and money on a suitable concrete base, struts or some other internal or external support for the structure, insulation and so on. Recently we were playing around with the idea of an observatory and what we found (to work for our plans) was a small granny flat kit house. But, this is not for everyone obviously for various reasons.

[JayTee]

I was interested in using this pre-built shed but came to the conclusion that the cost of the shed and the cost of the conversion might easily exceed the cost of building the obsi from scratch.
https://www.costco.com/Oakridge-8'-x-12 ... 68838.html

Cheers,
JT

[Ben Cartwright SASS]

Speaking of my latest garden shed, it is made of plastic. Great value and size wise it would work. However the roof provides structural strength to keep the whole thing together. It is attached with multiple screws and I am pretty sure the shed would slowly disintegrate if I turned it into a ROR. So I would opt for a wooden shed, maybe I am stating the obvious.

I think you could build an interior skeleton of 1x2 or 2x3's to hold it together. I keep thinking of something like that but keep asking myself, why when I have Bortle 7.5-8 skies

[Aratus]

Has anyone heard of or seen pictures of a home improvement store (Lowe's, Home Depot, Costco, etc) garden shed converted to an RoR observatory? If you have, could you share please.

Cheers,
JT

I expect a garden shed wouldn't have the stability to be sawn in two, and the top half rolled off.

However, I have seen one in which a shed was adapted so that either slope of the roof drops down to allow observing in either direction. No actual 'rolling' in that case.

Another had the telescope static but the whole shed ran off on rails to one side. The shed then became an observing hut.

[SkyHiker]

Speaking of my latest garden shed, it is made of plastic. Great value and size wise it would work. However the roof provides structural strength to keep the whole thing together. It is attached with multiple screws and I am pretty sure the shed would slowly disintegrate if I turned it into a ROR. So I would opt for a wooden shed, maybe I am stating the obvious.

I think you could build an interior skeleton of 1x2 or 2x3's to hold it together. I keep thinking of something like that but keep asking myself, why when I have Bortle 7.5-8 skies

Possibly so. Actually with a plastic shed the roof is so light you could probably make a hinge and flip it open instead of having to add ROR rails. Hmm this got me thinking, those sheds are nonpermanent buildings as well so they can't fine me for plunking one down on my driveway... The main thing is to be able to have a permanent setup that offers some theft protection.

About my skies, they seem to be permanently solid grey...

[Ben Cartwright SASS]

I know grey! That is my I like solar

a couple guys in my club do the flip open with the plastic sheds

[jmfloater]

I was in the same situation several years back and found the costs for building from scratch were not all that bad. The construction was solid enough to endure hurricane Michael as the roll off roof design acted as hurricane ties to the roof. You may not have the problems with high winds but something to consider. It was more physical labor but well worth it to me.