Astro Project

[Hans Tucker (Hans)]

Well Christmas break is close approaching ... sooo .. what Astro Projects do we have on the cards?

Me .. I have an Askar ACL200 ... I have an Askar FMA-135 .. plus all the mounting and autofocus accessories. My mission ... should I accept it ... is to turn this all into a widefield imaging rig.

The camera of choice ... and probably not the best choice ... Astro Modified Canon M50.

[Drac0 (Mark)]

Hopefully tonight I sill be starting my first real attempt at testing out creating a HaLRGB mosaic. I've allocated four nights to complete the imaging starting with the Ha while the moon is around, so it technically "could" be done before Xmas if it's clear around the new moon. But with the way the weather has been for the last six months I'm not overly hopeful so may take another couple of months to get the colour.

Cheers,
Mark

[xelasnave]

I hope to replace the two winch motors that use cable that currently open my roll off roof with a gate motor and track that comes with two remote control keys.

I have ordered the unit and track and done a little work while waiting it's arrival...it would be a great Xmas project / present for me...all the scopes operate via my phone thanks to three Asiair plus units but I still have to go down to open and close..at 4 am it is never fun and so I see myself just pointing the controller at the thing and it opens or closes.
I have no idea when it will get here and even if it will work but it is worth a go.

Alex

[Crater101 (Warren)]

Nothing so ambitious for me. A little while ago I built a wooden box for my refractor to protect it, so over Christmas / New Year I'm looking to do the same for the Mak-Cas. Something that will house the 'scope, two or three eyepieces, red dot finder, diagonal, a filter or two, etc., so everything is in the one place when the skies suddenly clear.
That of course depends on avoiding the list of jobs that will suddenly appear from the wife as soon as she sees me doing anything with tools.

[Saturnine (Jeff)]

I have to confess that I have several projects to attend to, that are concurrent with unpacking stuff and finding a spot for them, after moving home 3 weeks ago. At least I now have a garage / workshop to do the work in.
Not sure if I should list them all as some may be delayed for a while, or maybe never completed because there are too many.
This list doesn't include the little things like making motor focuser brackets or adding a peltier cooler to an uncooled camera.

No. 1- 400mm f 4.5 newt / dob
No. 2 - Re-design / re-build the 250mm f6 newt .
No. 3 - Build the 250mm f4.7 newt, for EQ and dob.
No. 4 - Build the 150mm f8 achro refractor.
No. 5 - 70mm 90* R.A. bino telescope project to work out the mounting
and tube alignment system and assemble. And if the concept
proves viable then possibly an 100mm bino scope, only achros
though.

All these are in spite of the herd of scopes I have already, some commercial , some ATM/ DYI. Need I mention that I like making things and could be accused of being a hoarder by those that don't understand that too much is never enough.

[mura_gadi (Steve)]

No.1 - Get my mirror to spherical.

No.2 - possibly make a little wooden box to carry a small selection of EP's in... including red light illumination etc.

Ps. It was pointed out to me that an illuminated make up box with shoulder strap might be perfect for storing a travel set of ep's. So, might be a trip to Vinnies/Salvos instore in the next weekend or two> Sounds like an easy way to get a hands free option and the illumination all in one go.