I wonder how site management will handle his rotation or shutter stutter in bare feet when it freezes. But hey, its nice to see a bit of toughness in these mild conditions.
Might be using a hair dryer for more than just keeping dew off the lens!
Spent the last two days connecting the 240V and 12V power and 2 X Cat6a data cables, between the control room/Man Cave to inside the dome. It was a bit of a job but got there in the end
The ground in that area is basically solid rock, hence the above ground solution
Tomorrow is connect all the imaging gear and computers up....
Mike
Last edited by strongmanmike; 30-08-2022 at 12:40 PM.
Mike ,
Looking good , gee your almost finished
What a project
Sidereal video was great , now for channel 9, 60 minutes ……
I installed some low wattage 12v Led strip lighting around the walls of my Dome with a 2 way switch at my workstation and entry door. Glad I did , it saved fiddling around with torches when you run into any issues with your capture or want to change filters , cameras etc..,
Mike ,
Looking good , gee your almost finished
What a project
Sidereal video was great , now for channel 9, 60 minutes ……
I installed some low wattage 12v Led strip lighting around the walls of my Dome with a 2 way switch at my workstation and entry door. Glad I did , it saved fiddling around with torches when you run into any issues with your capture or want to change filters , cameras etc..,
Clear Skies to you up on Aussie Mt Everest
Martin
Cheers Martone! and yes, I have a strip of red LED lighting in fact, so it will indeed go somewhere All traces of snow have now vanished up here, much better for walking around and easier to work now
I had some trepidation about exactly how to go about doing the WiFi connection/boosting to the observatory, I posted on the Software and Computers section of the forum and got some very good feedback and while doing a trenched hard wired approach for the 50m out to the observatory or second best, a mini microwave direct link, were the two best options, they were also the most expensive and difficult So I decide to try from the bottom up, to see if an inexpensive option would work. Using my lap top as a testing device, the current WiFi signal from the house is very weak up at the observatory, with only brief intermittent connections, no good our house is a metal Nissen hut design and the router is right in the middle of the floor plan and inside a cupboard. So I purchased a Wavelink Dual-band Wi-Fi range Extender and after setting it up, plugged it into the power point in our master bedroom, which is on the observatory side of the house, with only a glass window to obstruct (I shut the blinds and closed the bedroom door for the below tests) and has a perfect direct line of sight out to the observatory (see attached photo)... aaaand bingo! it worked! Yaay!
Overall a good fast connection, both inside the site shed/control room and inside the dome
Taking several speed readings over 5-10min at each location, the average WiFi speeds today were:
Inside the house: 35-50mbps down/17-25mbps up
Inside the Dome: 25-45mbps down/12-20mbps up
Inside the metal site shed/control room, with security bars on the window and the metal clad door shut: 15-20mbps down/6-12mbps up
So the speeds inside the dome are only slightly lower than inside the house and while there is a more significant drop inside the closed metal site shed, it is still not too bad and very usable.
Happy! ...for now anyway
Mike
Last edited by strongmanmike; 29-08-2022 at 01:22 PM.
I silicone sealed all the joins in the PVC ducting carrying the 240V/12V power and data cables, just for those heavy downpour times...so, I think..?.. this marks the completion of the main imaging observatory structure
Now to collimate the OTA, mount the new SX Trius H694 and the Oculous all-sky camera, route all the data and power cables around the OTA/mount and inside the observatory and download and synch all the mount, dome and camera control software...aaaand I am there....
Hi Mike can't wait to see some imagers from your site ,its was good to see you got the Wi-Fi sorted out I am using one of these TP-Link Omada EAP225-Outdoor AC1200 Wireless Outdoor Access Point, I used EoP from the router to link out side then wireless to the telescope. I am over at Googong for the last 3 days seeing our granddaughters going home on Monday .
Ian
Well....scope is collimated, all imaging gear (two systems - wide field and high resolution), including the new Starlightxpress Trius-Pro-694 Midi Combi PRO Blue edition system, is mounted, connected, all cables routed and all is working and ready to image!
Next suitable clear night will be mount tuning/pointing and camera calibration time and if that goes smoothly...then first light!
I decided to route the cables outside the mount until I have it all working seamlessly, then I will pull it down and route the cables through the mount (a significant job alone) and neaten up the power cabling etc...Maama Mia, I just wanted to get up and running, my imaging bug is really itching now
Hopefully my next IIS post related to Eagleview Observatory....will be to the deep space imaging section!
Mike
Last edited by strongmanmike; 15-09-2022 at 10:13 AM.
*Lots* of cables to deal with, aren't there? I'm still sorting out mine. Had to deal with a dead camera cable last night- lost my OSC Atik on a beautiful clear night- of course!
Ok, ok, I know, sorry, no images yet ....buuut, hey, we got some cool snow up at Eagleview on Sat night ..mostly melted once the sun rose in the crisp clear blue morning sky.....I never imagined I would ever have an observatory that experienced such conditions!
With some luck, the long awaited first light will start this weekend
Ok, ok, I know, sorry, no images yet ....buuut, hey, we got some cool snow up at Eagleview on Sat night ..mostly melted once the sun rose in the crisp clear blue morning sky.....I never imagined I would ever have an observatory that experienced such conditions!
With some luck, the long awaited first light will start this weekend
Ok, ok, I know, sorry, no images yet ....buuut, hey, we got some cool snow up at Eagleview on Sat night ..mostly melted once the sun rose in the crisp clear blue morning sky.....I never imagined I would ever have an observatory that experienced such conditions!
With some luck, the long awaited first light will start this weekend
Mike
Blimming heck it better be worth it, we've waited ages
to inside the dome. It was a bit of a job but got there in the end 
All traces of snow have now vanished up here, much better for walking around and easier to work now 
So I decide to try from the bottom up, to see if an inexpensive option would work. Using my lap top as a testing device, the current WiFi signal from the house is very weak up at the observatory, with only brief intermittent connections, no good 
our house is a metal Nissen hut design and the router is right in the middle of the floor plan and inside a cupboard. So I purchased a Wavelink Dual-band Wi-Fi range Extender and after setting it up, plugged it into the power point in our master bedroom, which is on the observatory side of the house, with only a glass window to obstruct (I shut the blinds and closed the bedroom door for the below tests) and has a perfect direct line of sight out to the observatory (see attached photo)... aaaand bingo! it worked! Yaay! 
and route the cables through the mount (a significant job alone) and neaten up the power cabling etc...Maama Mia, I just wanted to get up and running, my imaging bug is really itching now 
....buuut, hey, we got some cool snow up at Eagleview on Sat night 
