Pressure treated 2x4s, fourteen sides, two of which are a door. Bolted into a ton of concrete. About to put the sides on. No pier, just a place to keep the tripod in a stable location to cut down on setup time. Top rail is level and smooth, but not sure yet if I’ll have the dome rotate, or just have removable sections.
Almost finished. Need a local artist to create a mural for the ceiling though. No dome rotation. Instead the top overlapping part above 20 degrees elevation (neighbor’s lights) is painted canvas in a frame I can unlatch, lift off, and set outside. Around seven feet high inside. Has a lock on the door.
I’ve used it a few times already. If ZWO equipment gets too cold below freezing, I can run a small space heater in there this winter for cold clear nights.
I have some neighbors with backyard lights… so built the fence to help block them more. And I’m not really losing the Western view next to the fence, as there are trees in that direction anyway.
Aww heck… now you’re forcing me to paint little fake windows on the sides, and put in a garden with a pump driven waterfall and pond alongside it!
I did look to see if I could just buy a premade dome. With the normal petty theft in the area, I couldn’t really leave the polar aligned tripod standing in the back yard, let alone the assembled tripod and mount with a weatherproof cover over it.
Zounds!!! You can purchase or quickly build a DIY roll off roof shed pretty cheaply… but once you start looking at anything more classic looking the prices get ridiculous.
Neighbor has tall trees to the northeast through northwest, but I moved it far enough away from the house to be able to still see most of the fun southern nebulae. Bortle 5 skies in my small town.
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