It’s been a long haul, but we’re almost there. In this final part, there are just a few minor steps to complete the observatory. Roof Latches In order to keep the roof closed I obtained four large “Over Centre Fasteners” which are often sold online as accessories for horseboxes and trailers. The catches were screwed […]
In this part of the series, I will cover construction of the roof. This is the most complex part of the structure and it required a bit of trial and error to create something workable. The Roof Chassis There are various options for making a workable roll-off mechanism, but I settled on using V-Groove steel […]
In this post, I will tackle the door frame and door. The construction method is the same as for the other three walls, but slightly more involved to ensure the door is secure and watertight. The Fourth Wall and Door Frame The first step in the construction of the fourth wall was to add a […]
In this post the observatory is starting to take shape. We will finish the floor and build the plain walls (I’ll cover the wall with the door frame later). The Floor The first step was to lay the floor which was made from a sheet of 11mm Oriented Strand Board (OSB). I used basic OSB2, […]
In this post, we’ll get started on the foundations and framework for my roll-off roof back garden observatory. In the previous post, I finished building the telescope pier and now it’s time to enclose it. The Framework When planning this observatory, I considered a number of construction options. Many people buy a wooden, plastic or […]
In this post, I’ll explain how I finished building the concrete pier for my roll-off roof back garden observatory. In the previous post, I covered the groundwork for the pier, and this time I will explain the process of building it. In the Mix The pier foundation and pier are constructed from concrete, as are […]
In this series of posts, I’ll set out details of how I built a small roll-off roof back garden observatory for my imaging equipment. I’m by no means an expert DIYer, though I do tackle smaller jobs around the house when the mood strikes. Building with wood is not as daunting as it might seem. […]
When planning to build a small observatory for my imaging gear, my aim was to make it as small as possible in order to save cost and also to make it easy to build and maintain. There are a number of rough guides to building small observatories on the web, but one key consideration seems […]