MY OBSERVATORY
It measures only 6'x6' and it is small! I originally had my mini-MAX observatory which included a permanent pier and a wedge mounted Meade 12" f/10 LX200 UHTC. I also have a Meade 10" f/6.3 GPS UHTC and a Takahashi Sky90 that would ride piggyback. That observatory had to go with the coming of the Titan mount. I wanted to improve my guiding for astrophotography, which is my main purpose for owning telescopes.
The floor is all 4x4 and 3/4 thk pressure treated plywood. The walls are "T11", and the roof is made from 10mm thk Aluminite which is a composite of a rubber/plastic core faced on both sides with .019 thk aluminum and painted white. It is very impervious to any kind of weather and is lighter than plywood yet very strong. NO warping here. The cost is about $160 per 4'x8' sheet. The roof opens with polished stainless hinges. All hardware is also stainless. So opening these roof panels required considerations for snow and lifting to open. Hence 6'x6' size. Since the pier already existed, I had to design the observatory so that my largest SCT, mounted on the Titan, would not be restricted in movement. I did the design in a CAD program and scaled the Losmandy Titan picture so I could put it in my 3D CAD dwg. I sent a picture of a Titan mount with a SCT attached to a Titan owner (actually HIS web site picture modified) with a request for a couple of key dimensions. He answered my email with the dimensions. Thank you Alan Chen.
The door is on the opposite side shown and is also made from Aluminite.
Now I know it's tiny and would not be the best for visual observing, but for my imaging needs, it works. I do all of my imaging remotely from inside the house. I am free from bugs, heat, humidity, black bears, and from the cold.
This is an overall view of my setup.
A closer view.
The corner in which I set things up for imaging prior to going into the house.
This view shows the RoboFocus motor (blue) which is used to move the main mirror to a pre-set location determined by the particular focal length setup. Also seen is the Optec TCF-s focuser, located between the camera/filter wheel and scope, which is used for fine focus. The camera is an SBIG ST-10XME with CFW8A filter wheel. The SBIG adaptive optics module is not shown in this setup.
This is a view of my Takahashi Sky90 refractor. It is a 90mm f/4.5 system used for wide field astrophotography.