Hi Stefan, good to see you again up and about.
You have a heating pad for the secondary and fans only for the primary, correct?
Heating pad for the secondary and also heaters in the air stream for the primary, but only about 6 Watts, just enough to provide dry air in the morning. See earlier pictures.
Quote:
Originally Posted by gregbradley
I am curious. What does overcooling the secondary do? I thought the cooler the better when it came to mirrors or is it more the cooler the better so long as the secondary and primary are in sync with regards to ambient?
Does it make the secondary shift shape slightly compared to the primary?
Greg.
Greg,
By overcooling I mean getting bellow ambient or very close to it. It happens because the secondary assembly is radiating away its heat to a very cold sky and can easily drop below ambient. The same reason you get ice on top of your car when the ambient is still a few degrees above zero. The secondary itself is only 14mm thick in the center and will not develop much of a thermal gradient that would cause shape shifting. If there is a small change in focal length, the auto focus should deal with it. I will set the controller to maintain the secondary at about 1.5 degrees above ambient. That may not be worm enough to prevent dew in some conditions but it will not produce a heat plume either. A humidity sensor would allow the calculation of the dew point, but at this stage I want to avoid using one.
Looks as good as, if not better, than top end commercial units.
I hope so, as I designed it from the start to be a commercial product if there is demand for it. But I won't start advertising it as such until serial number 002 is completed. That will not happen until mid next year because of other work commitments. Meanwhile I also want to bring up the prototype (SN 000) to the same standard with the electronics as SN 001.
This image is a calibrated stack of 77 x 240 sec Lum exposures. No further processing applied.
The scope is exceeding all expectations, particularly the time honored ability for new equipment to generate cloud!
Thanks Tom for the feedback, and welcome to IIS.
I'm sure you will also get good feedback regarding processing if you post future images in the deep sky section.
This Lum image looks like a promising start, but I don't know how you managed to accumulate 5 hours worth of clear sky. I had to abandon all my attempts of travel to Haethcote because of predicted high level haze.
Longest thread I have read through in its entirety and I am simply amazed at the talent, dedication, perseverance and skill display. I am simply in awe of what you've achieved with your skills; wow falls way short. Stunningly grand work!
I've also just read the thread. So happy that this is happening in Australia.
I tried to follow Tom's link to astrobin but got a 404 error. Is #001 still pumping out images that we can take a look at? or #000 for that matter?! (edit: found it. threw beamtech into the astrobin search bar... its there https://www.astrobin.com/search/?q=beamtech )
Thanks for the write up and answering the questions, too, Stefan. A massive achievement.
Thanks Troy, Matthew and JP for the encouragement.
At the moment #000 is being used as a development test bed, so it is not producing any images. However #002 and #003 are coming along nicely, although I'm having some difficulties with purchasing materials and parts because of the lock down. Took almost two months for some temperature sensors bought on eBay to arrive, for example.
Last edited by Stefan Buda; 06-10-2020 at 05:26 PM.
I used a "biscuit cutter" to a depth of 25mm and then I came in from the side with a 9" diamond disc.
I haven't got a supplier for primary blanks yet. What I accumulated so far, is from the second hand market.
I used a "biscuit cutter" to a depth of 25mm and then I came in from the side with a 9" diamond disc.
I haven't got a supplier for primary blanks yet. What I accumulated so far, is from the second hand market.
Diamond crown for the front? (biscuit cutter) How do you use a disc? Very carefully I assume? Got any pics? I'm asking coz this stuff fascinates me. The methodology I mean.