I figured that it was about time to document my experience and results with automating my observatory, so here we go. This might be a longish post but I will try and keep it in check
Photos of the observatory construction can be found on my
FlickR account here. Click on the Glanmire Observatory album for photos of the construction and automation.
I have posted three videos on YouTube as well. Links follow:
Video 1
Video 2
Video 3
My observatory is located on my property (1 acre) about 15 minutes drive east of Bathurst in Bortle 3 skies. I specifically moved there with a view to building an observatory. The broad options were; classic dome, roll off roof; roll off shed. I went for a roll off shed to keep things simple and keep costs down. Also, my planning assumption was that a manual operation was fine so I didn't need/want to automate the operation. **** Lesson learnt - be very careful in making these assumptions
After five years of operation and by then having automated image capture, focusing, meridian flips etc. etc. I started to fully realise the benefits of automating the observatory. There were two main objectives to be realised; to save me getting out of bed early in the morning to close the obs and, more importantly, to automate the closing should an unexpected weather event (i.e. rain) occur.
The main components of the automation of the observatory include:
* Merlin 230T panel lift garage door opener
*
Aurora Eurotech weather sensor
*
Skyroof Controller (Interactive Astronomy US)
*
IP 9858DX Power Switch
My image acquisition software is SGP Pro.
I purchased the Merlin 230T panel lift garage door opener second hand off eBay for $150. The other products I purchased directly from the suppliers. The Skyroof Controller works very well. It comes with the hardware controller, cables for connecting to the Merlin 230T, cables and magnetic switched to detect opening/closing and the requisite software.
The observatory has 240v power connected and I have run a Cat 6 LAN cable to the obs as well. Data captured during the imaging session is downloaded to a 4TB server in the house. The next day I will review the data captured, bin any crappy subs and copy the remaining data set to another 4TB server which is located in my office in the shed (where else
).
With the above system in place I can now schedule the start and finish of imaging sessions which includes opening and closing the observatory. If a rain event occurs or an extended cloudy period, the observatory will close automatically.
I have included a link here to a presentation given to a recent meeting of the ASNSW Astro Imaging group.
So there you have it. Feel free to fire away with any questions that you may have.
Clear skies,
Rodney