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Old 24-08-2017, 06:54 AM
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Astrofriend (Lars)
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DIY Mini Observatory

Hi,
I live in the northern Europe and the last year I have working on my observatory project. I try to build a small observatory to my 5" APO refractor, but still in future be able to hold a 10" Newton. Normally I'm will not be inside the observatory, it's partly remote controlled.

In Sweden were I live we could have cold winters and lot of snow, it make it more complicated.

I'm not finished with the observatory yet, and maybe never will be. But last week I could take my first photo from the observatory. Now are just a lot of small problem to solve and implement.

If you find it interesting to follow my obervatory project I have done a project page about it:
http://astrofriend.eu/astronomy/proj...servatory.html

I hope you find something interesting!

Chears!
Lars
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Old 24-08-2017, 07:58 AM
glend (Glen)
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Lars, thanks, its always interesting to see how different people solve observatory design issues. I am curious as to how you are securing the observatory to the ground, as it appears to be just sitting on the rock. High winds could easily move it off the pads you have put down, it appears. Maybe i missed a step in your report.
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Old 24-08-2017, 08:42 AM
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ZeroID (Brent)
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Nice work, well done. It's given me a few ideas for later possible improvements to my own Ob.
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Old 24-08-2017, 05:10 PM
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Hi,
Thanks for the comments Glen and Brent,

Don't be worry, I will anchor the building into the rock later, just have to find a machine that could drill the holes in the rock. I want some flexibilty so I can can fine adjust the position of the buidling around the pier, it's very tight under the house with the mechanism to the roof.

I also have to add more srews to the plastic roof, otherwise heavy winds can rip it off.

How about you, do you have a homepage (I see astrophotos but no observatory) or a place with photos of your observatories? It's always interesting to see others constructions.

/Lars
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Old 24-08-2017, 05:40 PM
glend (Glen)
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Lars, you can see my observatory build thread here:

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...ht=Observatory

Our environment is very different to yours, and so my observatory is built on treated pine posts ( insert and termite damage is a consideration). Some use concrete slab bases. My obs has a separate pier footing of course. I am originally from Canada, lived there for 30 years, so i and am very familiar with the granite of the Canadian Shield, which is very similiar to your bedrock.
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Old 24-08-2017, 05:51 PM
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Hi Glen,
That looks great, how much have you increased your photo taking after it had been ready for use?

Where I live in Stockholm, the capital city of Sweden we have big problems with light polutions, even at our summerhouse 30 km outside city. How about your place, according to your photos it looks to be a dark place.

I'm not sure if you can see this:
https://www.lightpollutionmap.info/#...ers=B0TFFFFFFF

There is a red marker. I have moved the telescope from light purple area to green area. That's much better but still light polution problems.


We don't have termites here but a lot of ants have moved in, must find a way to get rid of them. I didn't expect this to happen.

/Lars
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Old 27-08-2017, 02:13 PM
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ZeroID (Brent)
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Hi Lars, sorry, I don't have a website story on my Ob. It is a converted garden shed in my backyard sitting on a 4 meter square slab of concrete that was laid by a previous house owner.
As we live on the side of an small volcanic hill ( extinct ! ) in Auckland, New Zealand it is also attached to a couple of million tonnes of rock quite securely. The roof splits centrally and slides open East & West so I can minimise the opening to the target for the night. As it is only meters from my house I don't bother with remote but as you'd expect, dealing with light pollution near a big city CBD can be a problem
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Old 27-08-2017, 08:24 PM
I.C.D (Ian)
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Hi Lars
It is looking good mate great job well done it makes life so easy when you finish viewing for the night you can close the roof lock the door and go inside and every thing is set up for the next night .Will you be lining the inside .If you want to see where I live this is my lat/long 32.32.s 151.10.e also a pic of my observatory
Ian


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Old 31-08-2017, 06:47 PM
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Hi,

@Ian,
Is your building made of steel? And I see that you have a solar panel, I have thougts about that too. But in Sweden we don't have much sunshine in the winter so I'm not sure it will work. How big battery do you have?

This first winter I will not do anything inside the observatory, just collecting experience.


@Brent,
Thank you for the description of your observatory. A girl I talked to many years ago came from New Zealand, she told me that the climate and nature is almost like that we have in Sweden.

/Lars
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Old 03-09-2017, 01:31 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Astrofriend View Post
Hi,

@Ian,
Is your building made of steel? And I see that you have a solar panel, I have thougts about that too. But in Sweden we don't have much sunshine in the winter so I'm not sure it will work. How big battery do you have?

This first winter I will not do anything inside the observatory, just collecting experience.


@Brent,
Thank you for the description of your observatory. A girl I talked to many years ago came from New Zealand, she told me that the climate and nature is almost like that we have in Sweden.

/Lars
Hi Lars, there are quite a few similarities Lars but I suspect we are a bit warmer all round. And we like Rally Cars as well ..
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Old 18-09-2017, 03:21 PM
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Hi Brent,
Yes I have seen on television all those V8 races, fun!

I see in your signature that you have a RC telescope, I have some thoughts about a GSO 10" RC. I can take my 3" field flattener from my APO refractor and used in on a 10" RC telescope and get very big sized corrected field, maybe as big as 60mm. But just 1x corrector and the focallength will be wopping 2400mm. I more like 1000 to 1500mm range and a wider field and faster.

How do you use your RC, with a reducer or?

This is the field flattener that I maybe can use to a RC telescope:
http://astrofriend.eu/astronomy/proj...flattener.html


/Lars
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Old 19-09-2017, 11:42 AM
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Hi Lars,
No, my telescope is not an RC, It's a DIY Serrurier Truss Newt which can either be a DOB or mount up on the EQ6. Built very light but stiff so to get the weight down. Here it is in it's two configurations in early days.
But I now use the Lunt 102mm ED F7 most of the time. It is the only scope I have bought, the rest I have all built.

The R/N 8F8 is the Russell/Nankivell 8" F8 Newt. The mirror was made by Gary Nankivell, now deceased. He built mirrors and scopes for the Mt John 1 meter scope down in Lake Tekapo International Dark Site. I bought the mirror to make a longer focal length scope for small targets but it's a bit of a tight fit in my small observatory although the images are excellent. The secondary is suspended on guitar strings to minimise diffraction.
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Old 21-09-2017, 12:37 AM
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Hi Brent,
Sorry, I was so sure it was a RC telescope. Nice to see how you built it and it's smart that you can have it both on an EQ platform and Dobson. Do you use it for astrophotographing also or only visual?

In Sweden we have a famouse mirror grinder, Joel von Knorring. Have you heard about him? I couldn't find any article in English for you.

/Lars

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Old 05-10-2017, 02:07 PM
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sil (Steve)
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Is it just weird I started looking at the project and couldn't stop thinking I want to go and split the interesting rock its standing on and look for fossils?
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Old 06-10-2017, 07:12 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Astrofriend View Post
Hi Brent,
Sorry, I was so sure it was a RC telescope. Nice to see how you built it and it's smart that you can have it both on an EQ platform and Dobson. Do you use it for astrophotographing also or only visual?

In Sweden we have a famouse mirror grinder, Joel von Knorring. Have you heard about him? I couldn't find any article in English for you.

/Lars
I have used it a couple of times for imaging but it's a big beast up on the EQ6 and fills up most of the observatory. I may give it another go now I have just bought the ZWO ASI 1600mm-c but the off centre weight might be a problem. To be honest I don't do much visual through any scope now, mainly imaging.

I haven't heard of Joel Von Knorring. I have built an 8F8 astrograph similar to the 10' using a Gary Nankivell mirror. He designed and built the 1 meter scope used at the Mt John Observatory in the South Islands Gold Class Dark Sky area at Tekapo I picked it up from his estate to build a long focal length astrograph which would have minimal coma. I need to make that work again but being 1600mm long it fills up the Observatory as well. But it does take good images.
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Old 06-10-2017, 07:51 PM
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Hi,
@ZIL,
I think you will be disappointed, our rocks are very old, you don't find fossile in them normally. If you find it must be in single cell life form, the time before it evolved to multi cell life form.

But at the Islands Gotland and Öland you find more modern rocks, that part of our country has moved from the equator to us relative recently.

https://www.sgu.se/en/geology-of-sweden/

What we have found in our rock at the summer house is something with vulcanic origin, a 0.1 meter wide string of black material. Maybe the only place in Sweden, the eastern outer part of Stockholm city to have vulcanic rock.

What your profession? Shall I try to take some closeup photos of our summerhouse rock?

@Brent,
Sounds if you have very interesting equipment but hard to use because of its size.

The ASI1600 camera looks to be very interesting, that day when I replace my Canon 6D I think it will be something simular. Have you start to use it yet?

Do you have any project photos from your 8F8 from when you built it?

/Lars
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Old 07-10-2017, 04:44 PM
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Hi Lars,
I have just received the ASI 1600mm-c a few days ago. I've been testing it on my main computer inside the house to see how it all works using SharpCap 3.0 but no imaging yet. And we have had about a month of clouds with no respite ahead so far.

My recent image upload to the Deep Space images section was taken with the 8F8. I can tell because it has a diffraction star on the brighter stars.

My normal imaging scope is the Lunt 102mm ED but it is fun to experiment with other equipment. I'm about to rebuild a 6F5 mirror into a bowl scope that packs down small for travel. Not that I really need it but it's a fun engineering exercise to do. Keeps me busy when the clouds hang around.
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Old 01-04-2018, 06:33 AM
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Astrofriend (Lars)
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Hi Brent,
How it's going with your new ASI1600 camera, satisfaid with it?

I haven't done much observations and the focuser doesn't work for the moment. Start to use professional data, it's interesting because then I have something I can do during the summer.

I hope I get my car up and running again, if, then I shall take my light weight Star Adventurer out to dark places. When I say it's dark it's relative my balcony but still very light poluted.

There are some alternatives to take my own astrophotos and still astronomy related. We have been down at Malta recently, maybe you have seen my mini report of the private observatory we visited?

For the moment very busy with spanish lesson, much more complicated then quantum physics!

Lars
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Old 02-04-2018, 02:02 PM
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Hi Lars,
Yes, very satisfied with my 1600 mm-c. Weather has been a bit disruptive as usual and I have been refining my processing skills and knowledge. There are just so many more options when you can add Ha to the mixture. The level of detail it is capable of capturing is quite astounding and I have a 1 hr 40 min capture of part of IC2944, Running Chicken Nebula, probably not visible from up your way, in just Ha and it is just grey beautiful soft billows of dust. I am hoping tonight to get a better go at it and do the RGB plus more Ha.
I have also modified my astro rig to make it more rigid, no guide scope flexure and reduce weight. And I have built a travel rig using an old EQ3 mount I had. Rebuilt all the bearings and drives so now it is quite strong and more accurate. I have more time to do stuff now as I have just retired but I think my wife has other ideas. LOL
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Old 05-04-2018, 07:34 AM
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Hi Brent,
Great to hear you started to get experince from your new camera, and good experince too.

The Chicken nebula must be to much south because I have seen a photo of it in the Swedish forums. When we go south we travel to Tenerif, it's relative easy and not to expensive for us. Maybe the nebula can be seen from there.

H-alpha and other narrow band filters are very interesting. I hope I get a monochrome big sensor camera in future.

You are reaching your winter season now, is it better or worse period to do observations for you then?

Lars
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