Lonely Spoon Observatory

[LonelySpoon]

Hi all,
Below is the link to the Wix site that has my observatory project on it:

https://homemadeplans5.wixsite.com/lsobservatory

I've been working on the observatory for about 4 years now, since first shovel of dirt. It is my own design- take note of how the gores go compared to traditional domes. A much simpler construction.

There is still a lot to be done to clean it up: finalising the dome control, a few leaks, interior fit-out finishing, etc.

There are images later than the ones on site, showing some changes.

Let me know what you think. I'm happy to answer any questions, too.

Neville
LSO
NSW

[Bassnut]

Wow that is interesting!. The dome ribs are reversed to the way one would expect (and what I did), clever. And designing in 3D software 1st, as I found makes life much easier. Well done :thumbsup:

[AstroViking]

That's very impressive! A very clever design you came up with, I like it a lot.

Cheers,
V

[LonelySpoon]

Thanks Astroviking, Bassnut,

As I say on my site, the orientation of the ribs greatly simplifies construction and assembly. Pretty much only 2 major measurements.

By starting at 3m, I've created a design that scales DOWN easily, too.
Love your images, too, Fred.

Neville

[Dave882]

I enjoyed looking through your site and all the photos. Congratulations on the setup and look forward to seeing it in full swing!

[strongmanmike]

Yeah all looks fabulous Neville, love seeing the variations in an observatory solution, always interesting and gives others ideas, nice looking location and cool website too :thumbsup:

Mike

[LonelySpoon]

Thanks Mike, David,
My daughter blames all this east coast weather on me publishing the site...
She reckons I'm a rain god.

If so, my apologies to everyone!
Neville

[TraKtorman]

That is a great project should be awesome when you are up and running. I like the website you created.

[LonelySpoon]

Thanks Peter.
Every day sees something else to be done, of course!
Keeps me busy in retirement, anyway.

[AdamJL]

this is fantastic :)

A clamshell dome on a "normal" building base is my ideal observatory. if you fancy monetising this in future, you could be onto something.

[multiweb]

Very clever. I like the orientation of the segments. :thumbsup:

[LonelySpoon]

Thanks, but better to donate the concept to the community!

(I'd consider asking for a donation for a copy of the detailed construction booklet I'm developing if people are interested though)

[LonelySpoon]

Even though overcast I went up last night to work on co-ordinating dome rotation to the mount.

I finally have things at Lonely Spoon Observatory mostly working:

I load CdC and NINA, linking the mount and dome control to NINA and the mount to CdC
Re-set the home position if necessary
Select something from CdC and tell the mount to swing to it.
sit back, watch the scope slew and then, 4 seconds later, the dome follows

Bliss! Still some fine tuning but it is putting the scope clearly into the slot. It also gives a little move every 4 minutes or so to keep things aligned.

It turned out (for the Lesvedome fans here) that I had to keep the speed down because I was losing counts on the encoder. Also, I ended up putting an arbitrary number in as the dome diameter and making lots of test rotations to real targets.

Tedious but it worked! Now to try it on some real stuff, like 3 point alignment and actual imaging.

This has been a 4 year trip for me, finally getting some closure on it.

Neville
Chief Robot Controller
LSO

[TrevorW]

Well done :)

[xelasnave]

Good on you Neville. But if there is one thing I can tell you ..it never really gets finished..just when you think that something pops up...

But I know how you feel to see something that once was no more than ruff drawings on paper actually there and functional..

Well done.

Alex

[LonelySpoon]

Thanks Alex. You're so right. Now I've got to put the motorised shutters back in the line and get them working without jamming up.

Keeps me out of (much) mischief.


Neville
LSO