Thought I would do an update on the observatory with a few pictures. The first shows a modest amount of landscaping - eventually some of the shrubs will grow up.
Next are two interior shots of the dome remote control which is working beautifully under Ascom control. It also shows the storm cleats that I fitted as well as the dome track that the motor turns.
Then a shot of the scope and cable control around the scopes so that I dont trip over cables.
Whats not shown are the webcams around the dome to show scope attitude so that when remote desking I can see if the mount is getting close to the cameras etc.
Only one tree really in the way to any extent. Any lower and then you get atmospheric disturbance in the photos. Been fairly lucky with the placement of the observatory as light pollution is the main bugbear.
I've now been able to automate the dome to the extent that all I have to do now is open up the shutters and then walk inside and control the whole box and dice from inside using Team Viewer. Once I replaced the laptop with one having a real rs232 port I found I was not getting interupts on the dome rotation using a serial2USB converter. One other thing I have noticed is that the scopes are well equilibrated to the outside temperature and that they are holding focus extremely well. Indeed the refractors last night were exactly in focus from the previous nights efforts. I'm thinking of automating the setup now using CCD Comander so that I can get into Sn patrols.
Have been using several modes of lighting within the observatory recently from touch lights to small led lights placed around the observatory. I found that in the end this is expensive due to batteries and so on a whim I've installed "fairy" or Xmas led lights around the rim of the observatory. These can be in different colours but I've found that since I do astrophotography rather than visual the white LEDs are the choice for me and really give a good light around the whole of the observatory. Highly recommended but make sure you don't get the ones with a blinking format.
Thought that I would give a complete update on the automation of the observatory so far. Im using Sequence generator pro now for all my imaging and control as Ive found it to be extremely robust for autofocusing ith temperature drop, control of the dome and light box as well as for planning a sequence of images for either SN patrol or pretty pictures. One thing that took a little bit of manauvering was to get the pier flip actuating in concert with the dome and autoguider finding a guide star after flipping as well as putting me back on target with plate solving.
For the last few nights Ive now got this completely automated so that I can plan a series of targets and an imaging routine with everything planned and automatically done in sequence including plate solving and pier flip.
Just a few photos to show before and after pier flip with plate solving and then the return of PhDGuiding finding a star after plate solving and continuing with guiding.
Highly recommended software for about $AU90.
Allan
