Widefield Triple Imaging Rig

[Gina]

Photos.

[Gina]

Some more progress today. Cut the hole for the guide camera and lens. Drilled and tapped holes for the trios of screws/washers that hold the adapter plates for the cameras and lenses. The latter shots show one particular combination of lenses viz. 200mm plus 2 x 135mm. Other combos that I may use are 300/200mm, 135/105mm and 55/35mm. The Atik 460EX is not included ATM becausr it's all set up on the MN190 and I'm in the middle of an imaging series and don't want to disturb it.

[sloz1664]

Hi Gina,

That is starting to look impressive. I have contemplated a triple rig but

setting up three cameras, one guide camera, balancing them all and

setting up two laptops to download the images, taking the various flat files

sorting out the complete pile of gathered images just seems too intimidating, at the moment...

Just a thought, what wood are you using for the sides? If it's a hard wood you should be OK.

Soft wood, even treated has a tendency to warp and twist, which is not conducive to imaging..

That aside. I can't wait to see the finished article and, of course, the first light images.

cheers

Steve

[Gina]

Thank you Steve I'm planning to run it from one laptop - 3 instances of Artemis Capture and PHD for the cameras. I've been running 2 instances of Artemis for dual imaging with no problems.

Not sure what wood it is but it's offcuts of T&G floorboards I used to build the obsy and the same as I've used before for my widefield rigs (single and dual imaging) quite successfully. If I ever get any problems I'll have a rethink,

Shouldn't be too long now before the rig is complete and ready to test. I've cut holes in the plastic strip for 1.25" filters. Still to do :-

1. Arrange guides and end stop for filter bar.
   
2. close in the filter box with strips of foam rubber floor tiling.
   
3. Rig up the stepper motors to drive the lens focus sleeves
   
4. Finish off the stepper motor control box.
   

[DIYASTRO]

Gina,

Thats coming along nicely! Perhaps like me, you always get a bit of a kick when you have spent time and great effort to think, design and build something and then the lenses get screwed on for example. Its when you step back and look at what you have made that gives that self inspiration, well, thats how it works for me sometimes!

Boyd

[Gina]

These photos show 135/105mm lenses.

[Gina]

Gina,

Thats coming along nicely! Perhaps like me, you always get a bit of a kick when you have spent time and great effort to think, design and build something and then the lenses get screwed on for example. Its when you step back and look at what you have made that gives that self inspiration, well, thats how it works for me sometimes!

Boyd

Yes indeed - you're right there

[Gina]

Stepper motor focussing drive. Motor mounted on a pillar with a coil spring for tensioning the belt.

[Gina]

The motor pulley in the photo above is a 15 tooth which I'm going to try. The 10t ones leave too little when bored out to 5mm for the motor shaft. I've looked into microstepping in the Arduine sketch, and this is quite easy so if I find the focussing isn't fine enough with 4 phase I can got to microstepping.

[Gina]

More progress on filter section including replacing the motley assortment of odd screws with the right sort and length (arrived in post this morning).

Here are some photos showing the work in progress. Foam pads hold the filter bar against the camera mounting plate and the camera plate mounting pillars guide the filter bar. More pieces of flooring foam tile are used as a light seal around the edge. I have put one filter in the left hand position in the filter bar.

1. Foam pads to hold filter bar cut and fitted.
   
2. Camera mounting plate and light sealing fitted.
   
3. As above from a different angle.
   

[Gina]

Duplicate post

[Gina]

More photos. Camera mounting and filter section are finished except for painting the inside matt black. I have 3 360 degree plastic protractors on order which I'm hoping will provide a way of setting all 3 cameras at the same angle when rotated. The lens side just needs more stepper motor mountings done.

[JohnC64]

WOW - that looks stunning!! RGB or narrowband all in one go!! And the option of compressing a whole nights imaging into a couple of hours. Fantastic

The only other thing that i could think of would be the addition of a USB hub fixed onto the wooden side, it would cut down on the number of USB cables to run back to the computer. Just 1 USB, 1 power and the st4 lead from the qhy5 to the mount.

Stunning project

John

[Gina]

Thank you John Oh yes, it'll have a USB hub And a box containing an Arduino plus ULN2003A stepper motor drivers for focussing. Maybe dew heaters too...

[Chris]

Looks like something JPL or NASA would produce! Surely your the first to try this? I've certainly not come across anything like it before anyway. It alo has wonderful symmetry which will be good for balance!

Well done Gina!

Chris

[Gina]

Thank you Chris

[ncjunk]

Gina it looks fantastic!

Can't wait to hear how it performs and how you get all the cameras imaging at once.

I take it you'll be using 2 computers? I've found most astro software is only setup for a maximum of 2 cameras, 1 guide and 1 imaging.

Should look good on the mount. Wonder what the balancing will be like....

[Gina]

Thank you Neil

I'm hoping to get away with one computer - I expect to find out quite soon now. I think I've finished imaging the Bubble Nebula with no decent clear nights in the 10 day forecast, so I'll take the MN190 off the mount and put the widefield rig on instead. Maybe today. There's quite a lot I can check out in the daytime. I run two separate instances of Artemis Capture for dual imaging plus PHD for guiding and AstroTortilla for target finding - I see no reason why I shouldn't run three instances of Artemis but who knows

I don't foresee any problems with balance though it could be a bit back heavy with the shortest focal length lenses on. If that happens I can move the rig forward on the base plate, it's only 4 wood screws.

[Gina]

It's raining now and the wind is in the east so if I open the flap the rain will blow in Next time it's fine (in the daytime) I'll take the widefield rig into the obsy and set it up.

[Gina]

One of the 360 degree protractors came today but it isn't suitable so I'll go back to my original idea of marking the rotateable adapters. I don't need markings every degree anyway.

And it's STILL RAINING!

[Gina]

Been applying matt black paint and flocking. Also, put RGB filters in filter slide ready to try terrestrial imaging. I can do this with lenses as they have aperture control. With a telescope I have to use NB filters to reduce the light enough as the minimum exposure is 1ms. I'm now about ready to do a test run with three cameras and - guess what - yup, it's started raining again! Might be just showers though. (Ever the optimist )

A couple of photos. The filter box and the lens side with flocking. I painted the filter slide and inside of the camera mounting plate but forgot to take a photo of those - it's now reassembled and ready for putting on the mount.

[kingboya]

Looking really good Gina, can't wait to see the results! JUST DON'T DROP THAT ASSEMBLY! ;-)

[Gina]

Thank you

[Gina]

Managed to dodge the showers and get the assembly out into the observatory. Disconnected the MN190 and lowered it to the floor with the hoist then put the new rig on the mount - didn't need the hoist for that it's only a few kilos. The WF rig is now on the mount and balanced, just slightly camera heavy. USB hub attached to wooden bracket and umbilical attached to underside of mounting plate. Rain has again stopped play but I'll be running up Artemis Capture and trying imaging when it stops. Cameras are already connected to power from the umbilical and USB from the hub. I'll take some photos when I'm out there next time.

[Gina]

Well the rain didn't let up and that's it for today - try again tomorrow.