I've only been able to use it twice due to weather unfortunately, but I'm pretty happy with it. So far I've viewed a couple of planets, the Orion nebula and last night I managed to find the Tarantula nebula which I was pretty happy about
with local light pollution and a bright moon, nebula aren't very easy to find for a total amateur.
As far as the upgrades, for the fan I placed 25mm x 12.5mm weatherseal tape aound the inside of the flange on the base and cut three pieces to sit flat on the base between the collimation bolts. I then got a piece of high density foam and cut it 5mm diameter bigger than the gap it had to fit into, and placed 15 pieces of sticky velcro around the circumfrence to hold the diaphram in place.
For the fan I chose a fan that would suit my needs which in my case was a hydrodynamic "silent" fan that had 35cfm of flow while drawing 0.03amps at 12v. I've seen where people got a higher capacity fan and slowed it down with resistors to limit vibration but I figured I would just get a fan that had the exact specs I needed, which was around 30cfm with minimal draw. I also got a grill/foam filter for the fan. Then I simply placed the fan on the foam disk that I cut and pushed it down and this left a mark of the outline of the fan on the foam which allowed me to cut out a circle and make the screw holes. For the screw holes I simply screwed them through, no need to drill or anything as the screws will go through the high density foam pretty easily. The fan was then fixed with bolts and washers through the whole assembly and done up with lock nuts, not putting too much pressure on the foam.
Because I put weatherseal tape on the scope to mount the diaphragm to it gave me more room, so that my bolts and nuts came nowhere near the back of the scope. (the foam tape has to be thicker/higher than the collimation bolts or the diaphragm won't sit flat/even)
For the power system I just started with working out my power needs. With the fan I figured that on average the whole system would draw on average 0.8amps so a 18amp hour SLA battery would suit my needs at a fairly cost effective price, which I mounted utilising the existing holes in the mounts frame and a velcro strap. Then it was just a matter of wiring up a circuit. I set it up to go through a fuse straight off the battery then going to a switch, which would supply the whole system with power, then to the current meter, then split with one going through another fuse and to the scope, and the other going to another switch for the fan then a fuse for the fan and then to the fan.
For the trolley I just got some decent sized good quality wheels and welded up a frame and put rubber spacers for the scope to sit on. It is designed to simply assist in moving it, I still have to be quite careful when moving it around as the wheel base is fairly small.
All of the parts were readily available locally for me and cost around $250 (not including the tools you would need soldering iron/solder screwdrivers etc, or the steel I used to make the frame)
I got everything I needed from Bunnings, Clark rubber and Jaycar
I attached some photos of how the fan is mounted and of the trolley.
I have just finished assembling my 12v battery box with 1000w inverter cable tied to the box to run the laptop and mount of my skywatcher
