My astronomy project:
Building an Observatory
(or a playhouse for big boys and girls)

Content:

1. Frame
   1. Introduction
   2. From wood to observatory, bottom frame
   3. Corner pillars
   4. Lower protection panel
   5. Swedish red color panel
   6. Snow and water protection
   7. Stairs to heaven
   8. Building a stable base to the pillars
2. Roof
3. Roof mechanics
4. Floor

Note:
I take no responsibility or liability for what are written here, you use the information on your own risk!

Page I.1: Introduction

For us who are interested in astronomy photography there has always been a dream to have somewhere to have the mount permanently setup and in an observatory house.

Some of the reason are:
In a fixed place you don't have to polar align the mount.
The equipment is normally very heavy and it's not safe to climb up on hills with it. You can broken your legs or damaged your equipment.
You save a lot of time in every observation/photographing.

At our summerhouse we have a small hill that is perfect for a observatory. Previously, we had a children play house here, but it was very old and had rot in the wooden frame. The new house will still be a play house, but now for older boys and girls, almost exactly the same dimension. It's just 30 kilometers away from a big city so it's not perfect dark but much better than in city of course.

I have collected a lot of leftover materials under the years and we also have materials left from our summerhouse project. I try to reuse as much material from other projects as possible so this is a green environment project.

Here I will show you how I have constructed the observatory house, it's a very minimal house, just 2 x 2 meters. There isn't any need to be inside the observatory, it's remote operated from outside. It shall just hold the telescope and it's peripherals. In the beginning it will hold a EQ6 mount and a 5" f/7 refractor with camera. Maybe I can squeeze in a EQ8 mount with a 10" f/5 Newton, but not sure. Anyway, it's not very difficult to modify it to handle that.

It's just my own ideas adapted to what equipment I have and the place where I have it. I don't take any responsibility for it. You must construct your observatory for your own needs!