SkyShed Pod - My Personal Observatory Dome in my Backyard at home - Review of a Decade old Model 

Hey @EmberSkyMedia thanks for the review! Where are you located and how cold does it get in the coldest season? I'm asking since I am in Quebec, Canada and it gets really cold in the winter and was wondering if it's handling extreme condition well, we have -30c and even colder sometime here.

@@t_hustle_c5049 I'm in Ontario, it gets cold here (-27C most recently). Main thing is when its really cold you need to take things slow and not allow the lid to "bang" up or down as cold plastic is prone to crack if you mistreat it. Only issue I've had in cold weather

Great to hear! They are very durable for the harsh Canadian Winters! (Just point the inside she’ll south so snow melts off it easier).

@@EmberSkyMedia I have the fitted tarp for mine, but after a decade of use it’s showing it’s age. Cheers!

@@whenpigsflyobservatory mine needs a good wash-down which I'll b doing in the Spring when I debate I may move it to a better location (trees)...

@@EmberSkyMedia cleaning the tarp is an annual task. I clean it and the POD each fall. The tarp has started to show its age at the crown now but it’s still waterproof, mostly.

You can look forward to at least another +7 years out of yours, likely longer (would not surprise if they outlive us all!)

@@EmberSkyMedia Mine feels and looks brand new - I wash it twice a year and use Armor All in the spring. Great products for certain!

@@countermine33 yes I need to wash mine and give it a nice treatment in the spring as well.

Thank you for the supportive comment, I'm really glad you enjoyed the review of my observatory and felt the authentic vibe of it all. Let me know if you have any questions and feel free to let me know what you think of my reviews and content going forward.

Please do, and feel free to ask me any questions you may have, happy to give more insight :)

Oh yes, hopefully this spring. Will have to see what life has in store!

@@EmberSkyMedia can't be any worse than last year

My pleasure!

There is a Z-table available for sliding off the dome if I wanted to purchase it. For my needs it does well (the scope is positioned about 1ft south of center and a bit east so that I can point the scope almost to zenith if I wanted to.) I do wish they would make a more "traditional" dome for the SkyShedPod for astroimagers so that I could track across zenith when desired.

3ft to the bottom of the base plate (so about 2.5ft core pier with ~6 adjustment plate for leveling on top). Then you need the base plat for your mount that attaches there and your mount sits on top. Give it take an inch or two it puts the mount the same height as the tripod does.

They made some upgrades to add insulation in the walls apparently in the new versions and so the bays can have shelves if I read their website and cloudynights correctly.

No, although its light colour and semi-transparent enough the sun keeps the inside above freezing during the day.

I’m not sure actually, it’s the base/standard colour. You’d have to ask Wayne what that is actually called.