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VIP Astronomy
My VIP astronomy project is nearing completion. VIP is shorthand for Visually Impaired Person, of whom I am one. Over the past nine months and endless swearing and cursing my LX90 8" SCT Meade is within a whisker of completion.
After a frustrating afternoon with the scope, aligning and viewing the opposite valley wall I took my scope back inside and soldered some more cabling.The key to the VIP scope is the use of screens. At each point of process be that focusing, observing there are two screens imaging the view. Trying to achieve parra focal characteristics helps, but we live in a less than perfect world and things jump when I replace the camera with a eyepiece.
If your familiar with the LX90 you would know the base of the tripod stays still and the upper section including the fork rotates on the fixed base. For me this is a significant issue as I simply cannot track or see trailing cables, tracking is the real issue. So what I have done is build a power board on the fixed side of the tripod, any and all things requiring power that are stationary draw their power from the stationary board.
A single cable, a curly cable, feeds the upper power board. The board on the rotating fork side of the tripod. I can manage a single cable provided I have a good margin of error, the curly cable provides such a margin All power for the fork side of the mount is drawn from a second power board on the fork side of the mount.
My endless capacity for error and mishap is acknowledged and under rating the fusing on each and every electrical circuit is a helpful part remedy. I use aviation plugs as the are very secure and when inserting the plug I can feel them rotate until they are correctly inserted-orientated. The under-amping of all the fuses provides a safety guarantee for the equipment. Tonight when making up some new cabling I got the polarity wrong and thank the stars my 1amp fuse blew before my HiDef screen blew! It's that type of error that plagues me.... I am simply unaware until disaster rings, with multiple safe guards risk diminishes and having safeguards has saved me a fortune over the build.
Every plug, every connection is fused. My scope has a total of 10 fuses on the power boards and two fuses on the power supply sides, battery to lower mount, lower board to upper board.
With setup I have a problem, my unusual visual impairment makes it very difficult too look for things. As there are a lot of cables and a lot of things to be placed on the scope, all items are grouped. The items that run off 5v USB are in one container, the items running of 12v are in another. A number of items like the WiFi transmitter are fixed to the scope reducing the complexity of build and pull down. The only remaining issue is fixing a glitch with the WiFi that carries video from the camera to my DVR and PC in the pics you will note I have a HiDef screen on the topside of the OTA, this is the same screen my 1amp fuse saved from certain death!
Tomorrow i am assembling the scope and configuring some of the additional hardware, the same hardware that required breaking out the soldering iron this evening. I don't walk well ataxia is a part of my condition just getting everything outside is a battle and getting it all back inside is even more of a problem.
I have built similar but different systems for the boats I have owned. That's where I picked up the trick of fusing everything and fusing low and of ensuring solid connections and equally solid insulation. It was on my boats that I learnt a number of tricks that assist in preserving night vision. I spent nearly twenty years on the water at night, this builds a huge respect for the importance of good night vision. In fact it was the sale of my boat that funded the scope. If you can't drive a car or pilot a boat there isn't much point in owning a boat.
Under the fixed side of the scope there are a couple of more powerful red LED lights, these lights are on momentary switches thereby avoiding the temptation of leaving them on. I am thinking about using a capacitor discharge arrangement to make the on and off cycle even more gentle on the eyes. All of the lights and there are a few are both red and shielded. Nowhere on the scope can you recieve a nasty "splash" of high intencity red light, a "splash" of red will seriously degrade night vision. All the screens have a red function, the HiDef screen atop the OTA, my laptop runs Zoomtext an adaptive software suite for VIP's, that's a bonus! Every light, every screen has no more than a gentle read glow. Zoomtext (VIP adaptive software) will read text if I ask it too, unfirtunately it can't as yet recognise nebula.
One of the best tricks in the scopes bulging bag of tricks hanging off the scope is Skysafari which can recognise nebula! If you own a goto scope and don't have Skysafari your selling both you and your scope short. I acknowledge the awsome skill of practiced Astronomers that can guide their scopes without tech aids like Skysafari but I just cannot get around the sky without Skysafari without Skysafari the only objects I can find with any accuracy are the Moon and Jupiter and that's a battle.
Tomorrow I will post some daylight pics if the setup, it looks complicated. It's is a little complex but it's the way the system works in delivering alternate views and meeting my different needs.
Cheers
David
Last edited by Visionary; 05-07-2015 at 11:25 AM.
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