6x5 foot Observatory.

Just as you're about to observe... here come the clouds!

A familiar tale for all astronomers....not any more, here in Simpson Cross.

A couple of weeks ago one of our neighbours kindly offered a pile of scrap wood for our fire.

It just so happened most of the scrap wood was the remains of his 8x6 foot garden shed.

I managed to salvage enough wood to make a start on an astronomy shed. I had two complete side panels, and enough wood to build the two remaining sides.

The building started on what must have been the hottest days of the year so far.

Somewhere I had heard it was the hottest April in the UK since 1911 !

The two sides bolted together quickly but the structure was still swaying quite a bit.

Good job there was no breeze that day.

After fixing the remaining two sides the structure became really strong.... It might just stand up to the Simpson Cross  winter gales.

I was going to make a roll of roof with support posts, but as the observatory is only 6x5 foot 

I can easily lift off the roof when needed..

There's still a lot of work to do before the scope is fixed permanently, but at least the main structure is in place.


The cost so far has been for screws, hinges, nails, and extra wooden batons. Total spent so far £35.

I've made the roof frame, now I have to get some covers on it..

To set up my telescope previously required the eq platform to be taken outside, back to the house for the counterweights, back to the house for the tube, setting levels, align North...observe.

In total about 10 minutes.


With this observatory, I slide the roof frame off completely, open the observatory door, sit on the stool...observe.

In total  30seconds.

I've got a feeling that when the Winter returns, the amount of observing time is going to dramatically increase.


I'll post more pictures of the observatory as I go along.