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  #21  
Old 29-01-2011, 09:32 AM
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Please keep us up to date on how you go with the lathe too Doug. You can't be in this hobby and not ponder how fantastic it would be to be able to run up your own adaptors etc as the need arises...
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  #22  
Old 29-01-2011, 11:15 AM
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Yes, heard this was going to happen. I can imagine what your wife had to say about all this. LOL.

Man those hills would crap me off if I was living there. No hi res stuff there.

A dome will act a little differently to what you are accustomed to Doug. Cool down time will differ a bit too. Happy imaging.
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  #23  
Old 29-01-2011, 12:17 PM
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Yes, heard this was going to happen. I can imagine what your wife had to say about all this. LOL.

Man those hills would crap me off if I was living there. No hi res stuff there.

A dome will act a little differently to what you are accustomed to Doug. Cool down time will differ a bit too. Happy imaging.
Hi Paul, surprisingly, the nice shinny white finish does keeo the internal temprature down quite a bit below ambient and once the sun drops, opening theappeture and the door does drop the internal temp quite quickly. It will be interesting to see how it goes with a scope fitted up but I should be able to monitor it with the temp monitor on robofocus.

The big plus for me is it fits in my tiny backyard without taking all the space a ROR would take.
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  #24  
Old 29-01-2011, 12:37 PM
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I'm so jealous on a number of counts, 1. you beat me to it, 2. I wasn't there to fit it out with you and enjoy a few cold ones at the endof construction, sitting on the deck and enjoying the view.

But alas, I'm very happy for you. I hope it serves you well!

Darren
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  #25  
Old 29-01-2011, 04:55 PM
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Cloudyagain (Neale)
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That looks excellent Doug. Great buy. You will get a lot of enjoyment out of it and the never ending rotation of gear you can put in it. Handy to the house for easy wireless access too.

Don't suppose you'd want to pop it back on the trailer and bring it to Snake Valley so the rest of us could have a good look? ....didn't think so

Cheers,
Neale.
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  #26  
Old 29-01-2011, 11:39 PM
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That looks excellent Doug. Great buy. You will get a lot of enjoyment out of it and the never ending rotation of gear you can put in it. Handy to the house for easy wireless access too.

Don't suppose you'd want to pop it back on the trailer and bring it to Snake Valley so the rest of us could have a good look? ....didn't think so

Cheers,
Neale.
That is some ask. It nearly killed me getting it this far in the heat. Still a lot of work to be done to finish it off and get it fully operational.
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  #27  
Old 30-01-2011, 11:11 AM
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Congrats Doug

It's a fine looking setup that you'll have on completion, looking forward to more pictures.

Cheers
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  #28  
Old 30-01-2011, 11:16 AM
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That is some ask. It nearly killed me getting it this far in the heat. Still a lot of work to be done to finish it off and get it fully operational.
LOL when i was building mine we had a heatwave for a week where the temps were over 37 - i put up some shade over where i built the deck or else it would have been nighttime construction
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  #29  
Old 30-01-2011, 01:22 PM
Hagar (Doug)
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LOL when i was building mine we had a heatwave for a week where the temps were over 37 - i put up some shade over where i built the deck or else it would have been nighttime construction
I can understand that David, 30+ here everyday of building and now we are looking at very high 30's into the 40's so no more will be happeneing until it cools down a bit. SWMBO wanted it off the front lawn so the best thing was to get the building up. The rest can now wait for a cool change. I still have to order the dome rotation gear. How long was the wait on that?
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  #30  
Old 30-01-2011, 05:19 PM
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well done doug looks great better then the old tin shed....don't forget to put a few power points in the more the better... if you want a few ideas for your raised floor i can tell you how i raised mine and what products i used..
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  #31  
Old 30-01-2011, 06:07 PM
Hagar (Doug)
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well done doug looks great better then the old tin shed....don't forget to put a few power points in the more the better... if you want a few ideas for your raised floor i can tell you how i raised mine and what products i used..
Hi Pete, I doubt I will need a raised floor. Maybe just a sheet of ply wood to lift the floor up 15mm or so. Then some carpet to make it cosy on those long cold winter nights. I will be running power etc under the decking.

Cheers Mate see you in August. Say hi to your family, including Astro.
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  #32  
Old 31-01-2011, 07:02 AM
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nice!
frank
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  #33  
Old 31-01-2011, 10:11 AM
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Hi Doug,

MAN, you have got to be happy with that!!

Blindingly white in one of the photos, certainly is picturesque up at Mount Beauty!

Perhaps you should call the obs "WhiteStar" ???

I feel a naming comp coming on........

Excellent work

Cheers

Chris
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  #34  
Old 12-02-2011, 10:14 AM
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Hi Doug,
Just caught up with your news on this latest project, which is looking very neat in your backyard. I'll look out for it next time I'm on West Peak! Keep us posted with more pics once you're set up in the dome.

BTW, for the benefit of others, I can verify your claim regarding living amongst the mountains, and have posted a pic to prove it. (Mount Beauty township as seen from West Peak of Mt Bogong)

Cheers,
Chris
Attached Thumbnails
Click for full-size image (Mt Beauty township from West Peak_ 18 March 1979.JPG)
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  #35  
Old 12-02-2011, 06:33 PM
Hagar (Doug)
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Originally Posted by ChrisM View Post
Hi Doug,
Just caught up with your news on this latest project, which is looking very neat in your backyard. I'll look out for it next time I'm on West Peak! Keep us posted with more pics once you're set up in the dome.

BTW, for the benefit of others, I can verify your claim regarding living amongst the mountains, and have posted a pic to prove it. (Mount Beauty township as seen from West Peak of Mt Bogong)

Cheers,
Chris
Hi Chris, It certainly is nestled into the mountains. You should drop in next time you are up this way. The old days of all the old SEC operations staff getting around to see each other is long gone so my chances of getting down to the Valley to catch up is pretty slim these days.
I'm off to Snake Valley AC in a couple of weeks and of course BSG in August. You should come up.

Ah the west peak of Bogong. Been a few years since I ventured up there on the long walk up and the even harder walk down. Too old and fat now. They would need the MICA air ambulance on standby if I tackled it these days.

Good to hear from you.
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  #36  
Old 12-02-2011, 06:35 PM
Hagar (Doug)
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The dome rotation kit has been ordered and should be delivered this week.
The work will start all over again.

It will be nice when it's finished.
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  #37  
Old 12-02-2011, 10:22 PM
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marc4darkskies (Marcus)
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A bit late to the party but congrats on the new dome Doug! What a find! Looking good too (as all domes do ).

Cheers, Marcus

PS: When will you be taking orders for adaptors??!
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  #38  
Old 22-03-2011, 10:51 PM
Hagar (Doug)
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This would have to have been the biggest and toughest project I have started to date. The observatory itself and the dome rotation hardware were really a breeze to assemble. If I can do it without a major stuff up and without bits left over it must be easy.

The big killer for me has been getting the dome to slave with the telescope while connected to Starry Night Pro or the Sky six. I must have tried every combination of software and ascom drivers there is and still had some unreliable success but also a lot of total failures.
I tried everything known to man appart from purchasing a copy of Automadome from software Bisque. I wasn't going down that track as Houghy had made the purchase and was no closer to getting it all to work than I was.

I have scoured the internet for any snippet of info which might shed some light on my problems. I just couldn't get the dome to connect with the Gemini and the planetarium program without one two or all three throwing there arms and legs in the air in horror and sprouting some new and unheard of error message.

I had almost settled on using POTH (Plain old telescope handset) to interface between the 3 components I wanted to connect. Seemed like a good cost neutral alternative to Automadome. POTH being an intermeadiary connection program I was eventually able to connect all together as long as I started POTH, made the connection to the dome and Gemini and once these were connected made a final connection from The Sky to POTH using The Ascom Tele API.

I though I had struck it rich until the next time I tried to repeat the win only to find the gemini wouldn't connect and brought up a batch of new errors which really frightened me as one was almost a full page of quite small text. Out of interest I tried the same connection routine with the ascom telescope and dome simulator and it all worked every time. I now suspected a Gemini problem.

Back to the net I went, joined the Gemini_Ascom.net Yahoo group and started sifting through another bucket full of information. One item which kept popping up was a comment that the Gemini Ascom controller didn't work effectively when started from a third party controller like POTH, Ascom Dome or even Automadome. The fix seemed to be to open the Gemini Ascom control from the desktop and make the connection first then to start POTH and while connected request Poth to start the Gemini driver and it seemed to connect seamlessly every time.
This was a big win for me and it just required some settings on the dome and mount geometry to be input into POTH dome control to get it working.

This was not as easy as it first seemed. The geometry figures required were not terribly well explained and my original figures were less than satisfactory. Thankfully Marcus Davies has been through this same process and has produced a document explaining the geometry requirements. His document explained how and where to take the measurements from and made this final stage much easier. THANK MARCUS.

I now have a dome which does follow my scope quite reliably. A few of the figures need some fine tuning but at least it now all works and leaves me with a small amount of hair to keep the sun off the side of my head.
It has been quite a process and had I known it was going to be so hard I probably would have stayed with my old ROR although the dome should be more pleasurable in winter and on windy evenings.

I guess this closes another chapter in my learning curve in astrophotography. I can't say this one has been fun though.

Thanks to everyone who has helped and provided support during this and to my Wife a big thanks for not moving my bed into my little round room.
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  #39  
Old 22-03-2011, 10:58 PM
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mill (Martin)
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You can always call it the Doughouse
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  #40  
Old 22-03-2011, 11:27 PM
Hagar (Doug)
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Good one Marty, good one.
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