From: Milton Aupperle <milton@outcastsoft.com>

Date: April 23, 2009 10:59:19 AM MDT

To: Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com

Subject: Re: [Astro_IIDC] pads & sheds..

Mark;

If your not building a Shed, why build a Pad?

Without shade, the Pad will soak up the days heat and radiate it all night long, which can hurt your seeing, just like a house does in the evening. It also attracts snakes, spiders or any cold blooded vermin that want to warm up too in the night.

And why have cables everywhere that likely will get mangled when all you really need to have a single power cord and move your gear to the site?

What I would do is look into an efficient way of transporting your Mac Mini and gear to and from the observing site. For example, make a board / open top box / desk with big wheels that the Mac Mini, power supplies, cords and Monitor are attached to so you can move it all as a single unit in one shot. Add a garbage bag / tarp cover etc to keep heavy dew or intermittent rain off your gear, if that's an issue.

HTH..

Milton Aupperle

On 23-Apr-09, at 2:47 AM, Mark Gaffney wrote:

Hi Milton, I`ve run into a couple of snags with the shed. My Father is

being difficult about MORE electrical cables across the yard & the

best site with respect to sky views & length of cables (were they to

be dug in for instance?) appears to invade my (next eldest) brother`s

personal space. Perhaps I`ll have to go with the simple pad tucked in

amongst the bushes of the front garden (suggested by my Mother) & hope

she can eventually be convinced the shed wouldn`t be an eyesore. The

main problem with the cables to this site was the firewire ones which

can probably be solved by the use of a long ethernet cable as you

suggest! These cables would be removed when not connected to the

scope. Anyway thanks for your help! Mark.