While I am not a big fan of domes (they look like an observatory and have all sorts of nasty thermal currents which acts against planetary imaging), yours is a tidy setup Allan. You might like to add a third hold down bot and have each of them at 120 degrees apart from each other.
The galaxy shows heaps of detail in the arms on my screen. Would like to see a colour version when you get some clear sky.
Paul,
I thought about a third bolt at 120 degrees apart but I was reluctant to drill into the dome structure itself as there are no strong anchor points except where the two halves come together. I would have one cleat on the join of the two halves which would be a strong connection but the other two would just be attached to the skin of the dome and relatively weak. Understand your idea but decided two strong ones were better than nothing.
I really want to get more subs for M65 just to see how far I can push the DSI (mainly as an exercise) and for something to play with until the QSI arrives. Looks as if tonight could be my first opportunity.
Dave thanks for the comments and for good ideas to steal/imitate
While I am not a big fan of domes (they look like an observatory and have all sorts of nasty thermal currents which acts against planetary imaging), yours is a tidy setup Allan. .
Paul,
I found that a small fan in the observatory, blowing air out of the dome shutter, seems to pull air from under the flooring very quickly to equalise any thermal differences before I start doing any observing/photography.
Seems to work for me and the dome really insulates the scope from any wind buffeting that may occur, unlike when I imaged outside previously.
I really am chuffed with the whole setup now and cant wait until my new camera comes and I can start NB imaging.
I have made a recent modification to my observatory as I found that with the lower temperatures and high humidity that we are experiencing that dew was condensing out onto the aluminium surfaces of my mount etc and this would eventually cause problems.
I lined over the top of the decking with very thick plastic, folloed by a layer of insect screening, followed by the rubberised camping matting that I have on my floor. This has cured the excess dew or condensation problem that I was having.
I must say that the rubber matting with the holes is really excellent as I have now routed all of my cabling down the pier, under this matting, to the PC. No tangles and certainly nothing to trip me up while moving around at night. I have placed a sucession of mounted touch on/off ccd lights all over the observatory as well as solar powered lighting. Its now almost exactly how I need it to be.
Just need some decent weather.
Hi Alan, I'm curious about those on/off CCD lights you describe. Can you tell me any more about them? Are they AAA battery, solar, 12VDC , how do they mount, make, model, source.
Hi Alan, I'm curious about those on/off CCD lights you describe. Can you tell me any more about them? Are they AAA battery, solar, 12VDC , how do they mount, make, model, source.
Peter
Peter
The on/off lights I bought from supercheap auto. You get 3 in a pack and run on AAA batteries. They are made by SCA and have LEDs in them so batteries last a really long time. About $10 for three lights. They have 4 leds in them and Ive put them all around the observatory where I might need them. They just attach with a sticky pad on the back of the light - very easy. Have proven very handy and usefull. The other lighting I have is solar led light from Mitre 10. Cost ~$20 but very soft light. Have several of these too. The solar panel just sits on the outside of the observatory attached with velcro.
Lastly I mentioned the flooring in the observatory and how all the cables run underneath this so no tripping over cables in the dark so Ive included a shot of that. The pier also has those little open/shut clips that any cables not in use are wound up and held to the pier with these. No hassles at all now from cables.
Final update on this observatory as I have finally been able to get something to beat those damned mossies without a fan blowing on me and freezing my focal reducer off.
I picked up a small solar powered mozzie zapper that has a UVlight and a zapping wire in it from Bunnies for $17. I'll try it out tonight and as a final little bit of home comfort I purchased an 800W oil heater so that as Im finishing up at night I can give the observatory a blast with that and then put everything to bed. Hopefully this will decrease the amount of water vapour etc and thus reduce any condensation I may get on these cold nights.
One last modification that Ive made to the observatory is to connect mains power to it. Ive dug all the trenches and its up to the sparkies that arrive tomorrow to connect it all up. As you can see from the phots it isn't easy digging through rock, cement and building rubble but I had two enthusiastic helpers
One last modification that Ive made to the observatory is to connect mains power to it. Ive dug all the trenches and its up to the sparkies that arrive tomorrow to connect it all up. As you can see from the phots it isn't easy digging through rock, cement and building rubble but I had two enthusiastic helpers
ahh nothing like 240V - like the invention of the wheel and fire - revolutionary LOL.
If you want to open a can of worms Allan, there are many threads, especially on Cloudy Nights (and I think some here) talking about lightening protection for an obs wired up for 240V.
Interesting reading, but confuses the hell out of me...
and bury another (2") conduit on top of it before you fill the hole in
(put a few inches of dirt over the electrical conduit and tape first)
YOU NEVER KNOW WHEN YOU MIGHT NEED IT
There is new legislation here in qld in that - get this - it only has to be 100mm down if covered with cement. I checked and this is correct and it doesn't even have to be taped or have orange conduit. Grey is ok if cemented in. So I went for 300 mm down/deep trenches and 100 mm cement covering. All legit as I had an electrician do to observatory as well as putting power to the garage. All done now and filled in and all works excellently. Some may say I could have done it myself but I felt it better to have a sparkie do it. Therefore no comeback on me.
Made some additional "improvements" to the observatory.
I took out the EQ6 mount that I was using and installed my Losmandy-Gemini system. This is a great improvement as with the EQ6 and 10" scope I had to add an extension bar to the mount to balance the weight. This took up valuable real estate in the observatory, but with the Losmandy's thicker and more rigid bar I can add more concentrated weights on a shorter bar which really mproves moving around.
The next two things were just some general insurance. I had bought a solar extractor fan but needed a level surface to mount it on and I was reluctant to cut a hole in the top of the observatory and bog up the hole with silicon so instead I mounted it on one of the bay surfaces. Works just as well as tested using some smoke to see air flow. Anyway there is venting in the roof so I just wanted to improve the airflow. The next thing I did was; Clark rubber had some cheap ($20/m - 2000mm wide ) rubber-backed flooring on sale so I got 3 meters and used this on top of the plastic and insect proof screening already in place but mounted it below the rubber matting. Just wanded extra moisture protection, even if its a "pretty" blue colour.
Now I have absolutely no moisture in the dome and have been able to get the humidity to the same point as the outside air. Also installed silica gel holders for the 2" eyepiece holders in each scope just to help also as I dont want fungus inside my scopes.
David
Hope you are getting better and that the antibiotics are starting to work. Funny thing about the holes is that yes they do trap the dirt but because it falls into them its not at the surface getting ground into the top layer of material. If it were carpet it would just get ground in, but because of the holes its very easy to clean up any grass or dirt that I track in.
The G11 with the new ascom driver is a real snort.
