Dome is back on the wall, curved door is finished, although I need a thicker cord to open/close it and some minor adjustments are required to keep the cord in the pulley. Flip out window is finished and has internal locks and chains fitted. The entry door has been built and needs to be skinned. I have ordered some stratco maxirib to skin the wall/door with an expected Friday arrival. Almost there
Sorry for the crap photo, I'll replace it tomorrow. It's hammering down out there tonight.
Tell me about it dave, with something like 40 days straight with rain, the build has crawled to a near standstill So much stuff to paint/render adjust, when will the rain stop? Although, once the steel arrives, I should be able to skin it with battery tools in the rain
I believe that is lockup stage and calls for lots of drinks
Tell me about it dave, with something like 40 days straight with rain, the build has crawled to a near standstill So much stuff to paint/render adjust, when will the rain stop? Although, once the steel arrives, I should be able to skin it with battery tools in the rain
I believe that is lockup stage and calls for lots of drinks
Don't forget the old builder's superstition - when the roof is finished you have to put up a broom or something before you get on the pistol. Otherwise you risk incurring the wrath of the gods of something-or-other. Any builders out there who can explain?
Got the steel this morning and bolted it straight on. I'll have to redo the entry door, it's just not right. I figured I'd build a door jam to suit, mount the door in it and then mount the jam. The framing just isn't square enough for a close fitting door.
So almost lockup.
I've poisoned the grass around the concrete base so I can get a clean seal with the sikaflex once it's clear of flora. Might even setup in there tonight if I can find a usb->serial thingo that works. Had to sell mine to get a client going before xmas and the replacements aren't here from the US yet
Nice blue skies here today for the first time in a long time. Just trying to get the mount aligned tonight. Re-leveled the pier and have spent hours trying to remember how to align it
Cheers guys, it's taken a while to get here and it's not done yet. There is a lot more to it than I initially thought, but we're getting there. The entry door is not in a good position when the scope is shooting east but I'm hoping to run it all remotely so it won't be as much of a hassle as it has been tonight trying to get the mount aligned. In out / In out constantly tweeking it.
I had to google PHD polar align, I had forgotten how to do it
But here's a phd graph from the em-200 with guiding turned off.
FL is 860mm into the qhy5. Well worth the effort
Thought I'd try for first light tonight. Jammed the newt into the shed late in the afternoon and quickly found out that most of the usb plugs are rusty and the laptop can't run the qhy5 and sx wheel at the same time.
Well I guess it has been four and a half months, 18 weeks or 126 days since it was last all connected .......
Got it all to go but visitors arrived before dark and left after it clouded over
Thought I'd give it a couple of crownies to see if it clears.
The newt in the dome is a really tight fit, but it does fit Last pic is the entry door. Look out
There's baader corrector in there but I'll have to have another look at distances now I have the starlight wheel going although it should be pretty close to right. And the rings also need an update, I'm sure that's where the flex was coming from last time I used it.
Still plugging away at it here and here's a few more snaps.
Got the Entry door done so we have lockup Screwed a hasp and staple onto it to stop it blowing open in the wind. I'm trying to find a rod type lock that pushes a rod up and down, through the door and into the frame. Bought some rubber flooring and got the first 4 bits in.
Spent a fair bit of time trying to get the dome to rotate beter than it is. Looking at the wheels, there is already signs of wear on them and about 75% of the tapered wheels contact the dome so the dome is squashing the wheels somewhat. Also they don't have bearings just bushes and they are prone to slide on their axles and bind. All this tends to make the dome slide at times and bind up on the guide wheels.
I've been round to the metal benders and they can bend me a 30x30x3mm alum L for about $150 and I found some ball bearing U wheels to suit so I might upgrade the ring. I did do a first light with the 10" newt on M42 and found I had to move the dome every 15minutes or so or the guide star would be lost so automation is really a must have.
I've added the M42 image, which is just 5x5minute subs, Ha binned x1 with O3,S2 binned X2. Spent 2 minutes combining and curving this one but have some shorter shots to overlay one day. No calibration files used at all and I think I have these 36mm baader NB filters in the wheel back to front. I'm guessing the mirrored side should point to the scope?
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I forgot to mention that I used up all the left over foam by lining the lions share of the wall cavities including the door. Three remain unlined, they face the garden and fence so won't receive sunlight and will be used for mounting power supplies etc. I put a digital thermometer in there this arvo and it was 1 degree cooler than the ground floor of the house, however the obs is still vented through the slot between the dome and the wall.
I prefer VNC allan. Remote desktop requires the user account on the remote pc to have a password, VNC requires a password to connect to the remote pc. I got the little eeepc all setup and ready to bolt to the wall.
I got the floor in and a ton of little jobs including moving the pool fence.
I guess we'll see where the leaks are later this week
Ya got me adam, I dunno what it is, my blood isn't that thick and it has froth on top It's gotta be glue. I must have spent well over $300 in bloody glue. I'll work it out one day, I have a bag full of recipts to add up
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Needed a holesaw to get power into the shed and I've never owned one. Got a 13 piece set off ebay for $22 courier delivered. I'm sure it's junk but I only need to make one round hole and I ordered them Monday morning and they where here Tuesday morning with a bonus 1" wood bit There's another receipt that won't make it into the bag.
Got the PC, Monitor and Power Supplies installed. Turned the monitor wall mount sideways to get it to point up. There is no keyboard/mouse attached, I run it all from outside the dome but will use the monitor to focus the newt, (I have a robofocus for the tak) then turn the monitor off. I might need a mouse in there to do sub frames for NB focusing. I'll use that Pine board for a power supply shelf but I'll wait for the new USB hubs and cables to arrive so I can make it all neat.
Had everything up and running on the little eeepc tonight and with that little ssd drive I installed in it, it handles everything and responds well. Only got 1gig of ram in that win7 box. It's shooting long darks overnight right now
The ebay holesaw was crap as expected, the steel wall got scratched and sent the saw blunt, but the saw did cut the wood. I need a 25mm steel cutting hole saw to get the power in. Anyone got one? I'm looking for a BFWE (Bunnings Free Week-End)
So much stuff to paint/render adjust, when will the rain stop? Although, once the steel arrives, I should be able to skin it with battery tools in the rain 
