Building a Roll-Off Roof Observatory: A Complete Guide for Design and Construction

Almost every amateur astronomer who has taken the pursuit to its second level aspires to a fixed, permanent housing for his telescope, permitting its rapid and comfortable use and avoiding hours of setting-up time for each observing session. A roll-off roof observatory is the simplest and by far the most popular observatory design for today’s practical astronomers.

Building a Roll-off Roof Observatory is unique, covering all aspects of designing a roll-off roof observatory: planning the site, requirements for viewing, conforming to by-laws, and orientation of the structure. The chapters outline step-by-step construction of a typical building, and the accompanying CD-R provides complete, professional, detailed diagrams for each phase of construction.

The author is both an amateur astronomer and professional landscape architect, and thus is almost uniquely qualified to write this fully-detailed book . A professionally designed roll-off observatory could cost as much as $3000 just for the plans – which are provided free with Building a Roll-off Roof Observatory!

Real, existing buildings have been built from these plan-sets, with photographs to show how they turned out. At present there is no published book with the same degree of detail and expertise that this text offers the amateur astronomer. Three sets of scale plans are provided on the CD-R that accompanies the book. Full-size prints of the plans are available from the author, along with a bespoke design service if needed.