​​​​​​​Designing My Backyard Observatory – Seeking Advice & Feedback [Deep Sky] Acquisition techniques · akshay87kumar · ... · 17 · 586 · 12

Hello Akshay,

there are so many ways to build an observatory and the thoughts you have, I am sure everybody had them. It helped me a lot to look at many different projects.
Here is the link to my project which is built from aerated concrete, for insulation and to prevent heat retention. In the meantime, there is also a tripod at the back wall between the two solid columns.

Sternwarte V2 - AstroWolke



Clear Skies,

Arndt

Arndt Wolkenhauer:
Here is the link to my project which is built from aerated concrete

This is such a neat build! Thanks for sharing - and so much to learn from.

Hey Akshay

You can also go to my AB site for some construction photos of two observatories I built.
I have hundreds more pictures if you are interested.

Scott

From experience, my image quality deteriorates below ~25–30° altitude

I would say that is really pushing it. I've found that I get better results overall if restrict the lowest acceptable altitude to 50 degrees or even higher. I know that cuts into integration time per night but it helps with resolution and gradients. One approach to this is to pick two objects so you can split up the night, repeating that as needed so you're only shooting while the objects are in the elevation zone. That allows you to make the walls higher for better wind protection.

Akshay.   My friend @Cosgrove's Cosmos (Patrick Cosgrove) has a wealth of knowledge of and experience in, exactly this topic. 


CS's
scott

So this is good timing as I just finished mine, and while not really exactly what you are doing with a roll off vs mine with a couple domes, I can give some feedback perhaps that might help...   sorry for so many images, but it helps conceptualize I think your design as this could really be a roll off and still similar process.  I know there are a million opinions on these things, so I will just give a small blurb on why and what I did.

The entire build for me took about 2 months start to finish, pretty quick, did all the work myself, designed in fusion360, then went to work.  I had the 2 domes and they were very reasonable used finds for me.  The dome has some nice benefits with wind blockage, light blockage, and other aspects.  No chance of impacts with scopes, all tied into safety monitor with weather system.  Mainly, I had them, and I didn't want the footprint of a roll off roof.   Also, a roll off roof you can fit probably 6 piers in this same area, but I really only have time for 2 and it's a lot to run, schedule, etc...

1.  To isolate the piers or not... I chose not to.  I don't walk in there, and most professional remote observatories I go to didn't have isolated piers.  I was going to, but it didn't work into my plan with a pier already poured and my concrete couldn't avoid it.  No complaints, I'm not in there, it doesn't move.  Guiding is best it's ever been, I think this much concrete locked them in even further.  Those are 12" sonotubes down 4 feet with another 1000lbs of concreate around them.

2.  To insulate or not... I chose to insulate.  I decided I had an option of letting it cook in the summer, hope it was ok, or insulate and at least give me the option to try and cool if needed.  I'm glad I did.  It was 104 yesterday and it got 84 inside the building with no A/C on.  The domes are just fiberglass, so even with that it stayed cool.  I put a small A/C unit upwind and it cooled it down to 70 within 5 minutes when I turned it on.  The cold air has nowhere to go and it stays very cool.

3.  Exhaust Fan or not... I chose to add one.  It's inexpensive, and this one is downwind and exhausts on a schedule at dusk.  I'm glad this was in place, the cost is minimal ($200 bucks) and it will suck the air out really really quick and through the shutters.  ROR, may not need, but nice to exhaust the air even if the roof was shut, maybe an hour before you open.

4.  Pier Height.  I didn't want it so high that I had to stand on a ladder to use my visual scopes, but not so low I am crouched getting in.  Both failed... lol.  The door is only about 54" high, but to get scopes up high enough to have good view anywhere, I had to build piers a certain height.  I have plenty of room to stand in the dome sections, but duck going into them.  Annoying little bit.  To see visually, they are still a tad high, so I do have ladders to step up one step to see things.  In the end, it was a compromise with how I designed it and it is what it is.

5.  Power and networking.  I ran full 20 amps to each pier and 20 amps for the building.  60 amps total and glad I did.  I also have full ethernet run there and switched between all the piers and computers.  I wouldn't rely on wifi, a ethernet cable is really nice if you can fish one there.

6.  cheap but nice features would the LED inset lights.  I can run from my phone these wifi light kits and adjust the to any LED color.  small, inexpensive luxury item   Piers I welded up myself out of 5/8" steel.  The toolboxes were just low cost harbor freight versions, but really nice for storing parts and things and keeping fairly dust free.


In all this thing cost me $6k to build including concrete, electrical, siding, sheetrock and tongue and grove, lighting, metal roof, paint, etc...  This was minus the domes, which I found used for very cheap.  I didn't think that was too bad and it is going to be fun for the next 30 years to have.  Not sure if that helps, little different than your design, but some is probably pertinent to your build. 

One key question that concerns me is the distance I should keep between the piers.

On this point I could suggest that the confortable distance is the one to allow free movement in the horizontal, of both scopes and its cables, plus the distance of yoursef standing in between them, as a minimum distance. I have similar scopes in size and CEM70, GEM45 mounts as fixed ones.
Best regards and CS!
PS: I have images, here in astrobin, of the process of building my roll-off roof place, which I run remote but from my house...no that far away and I hev a lot of room for working inside.

Scott Lockwood:
You can also go to my AB site for some construction photos of two observatories I built.

This is very helpful, Thanks Scott!

Bob Lockwood:
Bray Falls at Starfront has a great video

This was of great help - completely helped get over the nervousness of "what diameter" to use for piers. Thanks Bob!

My friend @Cosgrove's Cosmos (Patrick Cosgrove) has a wealth of knowledge

I just completed my observatory - Whispering Skies.   It is a ROR design with 4 piers.

This is so good! I will need time to digest this. I am going through each of the videos one by one! I am just thinking of mine as a stripped down version (by half) to accomodate two or maybe expand a bit for three piers.

Josh Jones:
I can give some feedback perhaps that might help

Thanks for sharing your learnings! Will certainly keep them in mind as I design my observatory.

Please do keep the feedback coming in. It is great to lear from all of you.

I doubt there is anything additional I can add that hasn't been well covered previously but I have a fair amount of experience with this. I built a small 8 foot square manual roll-off in my backyard where I can run all the equipment from inside the house. I also designed and partially built a much larger roll-off in a remote location. Backyard Observatories did the framing, roof construction etc. I will provide a couple links at the bottom but I think the main points would be these:
1) As others have suggested I think horizon exposure is overrated. I have never been happy with image quality below like 30 degrees. If you look at the observatory build done by BYO I posted one of the links to, you see I had a drop-down panel on the south wall which I did use a few times. That might be an option which would enable you to otherwise keep the walls higher.
2) When you say "remote" there is a big difference between remote where you are a significant distance away and have to rely on a totally separate infrastructure as opposed to remote that is e.g. in your backyard. See the link I posted to "going remote- what I've learned" which might have some useful stuff in there
3) Instead of brick have you considered cement board? Might be cheaper.
4) The main issue with roll-offs if you do plan to to fully automate the roof control (and by fully I mean with weather data links etc) in the future is to make sure the roof can close with the scope in any position. Short of that you can just have a semi-automated situation where you can have the scopes park flat with the walls lower and then you will have to visually check to make sure the scopes are properly positioned before you open and close the roof. Web cams are relatively inexpensive and very reliable. That's what I did and it did work although I had to make certain the weather was good because I could not set up an automated roof closure for clouds etc. 

Anyway perhaps there is a point or 2 here that will help. Here are the links:
roll-off build
going remote- what I've leasrned

Good luck!
Dave