I've been lurking for a while, trying to soak up all the ideas I could get. I've also been playing around with SketchUp (what a great tool!) and learning how to make a 3D model.
I'm hoping to start my build in the next year for a purpose built Astro Teardrop. As an avid amateur astronomer, I try to attend as many star parties as possible. Star Parties are basically dry camping/boondocking. We're in remote, dark areas away from urban areas. Instead of camping within the trees, we're looking for wide open areas. The family and I camped in our pop-up until just recently. With 3 very active kids (15, 11 & 8 ) we just were not camping anymore as a family due to conflicting schedules, plus it was cramped in the pop up. I was getting the most use of the pop up by attending 3 to 4 star parties a year but a large popup is just overkill for 1 person. I just sold the pop up a few weeks ago.
While we may consider purchasing a larger travel trailer for camping as a family sometime in the near furture, I find that a teardrop would make an awesome platform for my astronomy events and maybe get me to a few more just weekend events. On top of all the regular camping gear, there is fair amount of astronomy related gear so I've designed a teardrop on the larger side. Since the astronomy equipment takes up most of the room in the tow vehicle, I need the teardrop to store all the camping related gear while in route like food, clothes, awning, chairs, hammock, etc but I would prefer not to store everything inside on the mattress. Since there are times my wife or one of the kids tags along, I want go with a queen bed and not a full.
Below is a screen shot video I put together. I've already realized that I'll need to reduce the overall length of the tear drop. As designed it's 12' 2" long and the sides are 5' tall. I'll need to get it to less than 12' feet long so the profile will fit on 3 pieces of plywood (4' wide); I can just tighten up the radius to achieve that. The profile is based on a Grumman 2 style though I've definitely stretched it. I may tweak the design an go for a Grumman rear and Benroy front. Since it's going to be an astro teardrop, a stargazer window like option is a must. I can't tell you how many times you call it a night due to poor conditions only to have them improve later on and you missed it. However Installing a flat window on a curved surface may prove very tricky which why I think something with a flatter roof line like the Benroy will be better.
In any case, take a look at my design and please feel free to comment.
YouTube Video:
Thanks!
-Mike
