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  #21  
Old 04-05-2018, 07:40 AM
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darrellx (Darrell)
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Andras

Thanks for the confirmation.

I have a 75 amp hour battery that I will use for this, but it is an old battery and I suspect it will not last the year. It will be interesting to see how this one handles the load. When the time comes to replace it, I should have a good idea of requirements.

Darrell
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  #22  
Old 10-05-2018, 03:47 PM
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darrellx (Darrell)
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Hi All

I thought this needed to be shared, regarding the Pier in the Observatory. Well, not actually THAT pier, but the duplicate. I decided to install a second Pier at home that I could use to test everything before I installed equipment in the Dome. Then I thought it would be interesting to see how they each compare over time.

The actual piers are identical. Same 165 mm pipe, same 300 mm square base, same 20 mm top plate. Even the same primer and top coat. The only difference is the pier footing. At the Dome, the footing contains about 26 bags of premix concrete. I say "about" because I dropped about the equivalent of 2 bags in the making. At home the footing contains only 9 bags of premix.

After I got the pier installed at home, my wife decided that it needed "landscaping".

Dichondra and Viola. Lovely. In the pic, the Viola are actually behind me and to the left. All up, nearly 30 square meters. I now have a landscaped Pier.

Darrell
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  #23  
Old 28-06-2018, 07:20 PM
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darrellx (Darrell)
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I was at my dark site last weekend. I saw this big guy come out from under my Dome deck. It was well over two meters long. Close to 2.5 meters.

I am glad I saw it in the daytime. It would not be a good experience to step on it at night.

With the temperatures the way they have been over the last month, I was not expecting any snake activity.

Darrell
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  #24  
Old 02-07-2018, 12:03 AM
ColHut (Colin)
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Not a nice neighbour!

regards
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  #25  
Old 02-07-2018, 02:34 PM
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LewisM
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Looks like she just ate too.

Distinctly remember walking one day along a bus only zone near a Uni. The road was just wide enough for ONE bus, one way...there was a Carpet Snake, easily 3/4 the cross-length of the road, slowly slithering across with a VERY bloated belly.... all the Japanese students jumped away in fear . I stood in the middle of the road to make sure no bus ran her over till she'd crossed.

She was BIG! Saw a similar sized one once also on Sunshine Motorway (also close to the Uni, so there must have been a colony), unfortunately JUST run over, writhing and twisting herself in a knot in pain. I almost felt like running her over again to end her suffering.
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  #26  
Old 02-07-2018, 07:50 PM
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Originally Posted by darrellx View Post
I was at my dark site last weekend...
Darrell

Excellent, so no rat problem I gather?
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  #27  
Old 03-07-2018, 07:38 AM
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gaseous (Patrick)
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Excellent, so no rat problem I gather?

no, but he's also missing a couple of 2" eyepieces....
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  #28  
Old 11-07-2018, 05:47 PM
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darrellx (Darrell)
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You're right - no rat problem. And it does keep some of the human visitors away too.
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  #29  
Old 12-07-2018, 12:26 PM
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Wilhelm Reich would be proud of you
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  #30  
Old 15-07-2018, 03:22 PM
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Hi All

I thought I would post this here in case someone was curious, or if someone is researching the issue before purchasing or making a similar structure.

I was interested to see how much light was reflected around inside the dome, given it is made of a white, reasonably reflective material. So I used the GoPro on Night Sequence at 20 second exposures and ran some exposures.

The first time was when the moon was at 90% illumination - very near full moon. 20 second exposures for 20 minutes.

The next time was when there was a New Moon. Once again, 20 second exposures but I ran it for 2 hours.

One of the attached images contains the full set. The other with "dark" in the name excludes the last 2 exposures where I shone the torch towards the opening, from about 30 meters away. I wanted to make sure I had a few exposures with some light in them.

The issue is really a non-issue from my point of view. Nice and dark except near Full Moon. I had thought that the starlight would be more apparent on the walls and dome. Also, I came in and out through the door a few times. No problem. I haven't cropped or edited either of the images from StarTrails.


Thanks
Darrell
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