Phase Three (the roof)

I seemed to been busy all day long but seemed to have got nothing done!

Done an awful lot of thinking about the roof and decided to give my idea a whirl with a small manageable piece of Norboard. I cut the board 360mm up from the eve and fitted two large hinges, screwed the lower piece to the frame of the observatory, which in fact helped to strengthen the frame by locking the side and front panels together better.

This half sized piece was easy to manage, so tried it with a full sized piece.

Here it is in place in the closed position.

And in the open potion, I've attached a length of string to the roof section and tied it to a hoop which is screwed into the other side of the front panel. This seemed to work and there was no nasty creaks of cracking noises from the frame. 

I may do this roof in four sections to cut down on the  overall weight plus will allow more options when observing. Yes I know this means seven joints to make water tight, but I'll get to that problem when I come to it.

The Central truss you can see in this photo may have to stay in place permanently both to allow for partial opening of the roof, as well  as for keeping the structural integrate of the frame when the roof is open. This may be a bit of a pain but will be a small price to pay as the truss block out very little of the sky.  

This is the view from the outside

I always knew this was going to be a project full of compromises and redesigns from the onset but so far so good.