My Observatory

In December 2007 I began the construction of a shelter for my telescope. I hesitate a little when I call it astronomical observatory because it sounds a little exaggerated, but in the end, observatory seems more correct than shelter because in it I will make my observations. I won’t use it only to house my scope and the rest of the astronomical equipment.

THE RESEARCH

After about 2 months surfing the net for ideas and pictures of others who, like me, decided to take this step I started working on the project.
In the net I found a little of everything. From small unfinished and badly made boxes that would have jealous of many dog house to truly scientific laboratories full of astronomical hardware, electronics and powerful computers, costing small (and even large) fortunes. It became clear to me that my project would have to be somewhere in between these two parameters (unfortunately, tending a lot more to the dog house for budgetary reasons). The truth is I found many good ideas that I’ve adapted to my personal tastes and circumstances.
I noticed in my research, that there are two main types of structures. The classic dome, similar to the ones we find in the large professional observatories, and the so-called “roll-off roof” in which, as the name suggests, the roof structure slides exposing the sky. Both systems have advantages and disadvantages. I will not enumerate them exhaustively. But, basically, for the amateur, without great resources, who wants to build his own observatory, the 2nd option is cheaper and simpler to build. You can even adapt a trivial garden shelter with simple modifications to allow the full or partial opening of the roof. There are pages on the Internet with suggestions and tips on how to do this and, in my opinion, it’s one of the best solutions. I studied this approach and was ready to start working in such a project, but that didn’t happen.

THE DECISION

I was offered some leftover metal panels (ERFI) in very good condition and (as I work with steel constructions) I decided to seek another path - to build a structure in steel using the metal plates offered.

THE PROJECT

After a few sketches in small papers (that I was spreading in the places I was for more than 5 minutes) I went for a more detailed drawing in CAD and started to put in order some of the ideas that were arising in my head. From that moment on I could count with the valuable help of my father. My father is a fitter and helped me with the process of converting many of my ideas, plausible in the paper but impossible in the real word, to something achievable “in the field”. In the end he was doing the real work and I was assisting him. Thank you dad for your patience in this small achievement of ours and for always being there for me all these years!

THE STRUCTURE

The structure, built in metallic square tube of 40×40mm and 1.5mm thick, is deep-seated in the floor by a small mass of concrete in all its six columns. The room’s usable area is around 4 square meters (2.1×1.9 meters wide) and the structure heights 2 meters at its highest points with the roof closed. To avoid oscillations during the roof maneuvers and to increase the rigidity of the whole structure, small 3mm thick triangular plates were welded to most of the structure’s corners. This skeleton was assembled, welded and treated with anti-corrosive paint before it was leveled and settled in its final place. To the structure of the roof (the one that slides on the fixed part) were riveted small bars of Teflon (about 200 × 20 x 5 mm) to minimize the friction. This was a system I idealized alternative to the solutions that use bearings and / or wheels found in most similar projects available on the net. It seemed to me a simpler and cheaper with some obvious advantages and disadvantages. The opening is not so smooth but it seems to be tougher.