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Commissioning of new roll-off in Provence - finally!

perfrej

By perfrej
in DIY Observatories

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perfrej

perfrej

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Folks,

After 8 months of building and travelling, the observatory was commissioned last night and ran its first fully automated and unattended session without hickups.

The observatory is situated on Olly Penrice's property near Sisteron in the French alps, altitude 930m. We are five people sharing it and it has four piers. So far, three piers are populated with the fourth scheduled for later this spring.

The base plate (concrete) measures 5 x 4 m and the design is low with 40 cm high piers made of steel. Clearance is 140 cm and the goal is that all scopes shall clear the roof regardless of position. So far, that goal is not 100 per cent reached with one scope being slightly too high. It parks nicely, though, and makes it to a low park before the roof comes rolling.

All systems run ACP with ACP Scheduler and are thus fully autonomous. My system is responsible for the roof and runs a weather server written specifically for this application, signalling safe conditions to the other systems via network communication when the roof is open and the weather clear. With everything running unattended and the roof opening for every single clear minute of sky, we expect the data to be plentiful.

All control funcitons use my Astrobox design for power, focusing and dew heater control, as well as the roof. The main system (mine) is battery backed so the roof will close reliably even if the power happens to be gone.

My pier has a 10Micron GM2000HPS, a Takahashi FSQ-106 EDX III and a QSI 683 wsg8 with Astrodon filters. The one next to mine holds a Mesu 2000 with SItech controller, an Orion Optics ODK-10 and a QSI 683 wsg8. The third has a Skywatcher AZ-EQ6, a temporary Altair Astro 80 mm triplet and a QSI 583 wsg5 camera. The last pier will have a 10Micron GM2000HPS, an Orion Optics AG-12 and a QSI 683 wsg8 with Astrodon filters.

Last night's run was my system only and yielded a good number of 15-minute subs of M106, all unguided with round stars. Both GM2000HPS mounts will be run without guiding as there is no need for. They easily do subs of up to at least one hour.

Pictures speak for themselves, so here are a few :)

All the best,

Per

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ollypenrice

ollypenrice

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The worst kept secret in astronomy is out! I've only had menial tasks to perform on the project, pouring concrete and knocking in nails etc etc.  Incredibly exciting, though, to watch the computer decide that the time has come, the sky is clear, so it opens the roof,  jusslikethat.  Amazing. It"s been great fun and really has happened - which is deeply satisfying. Well done to Per and the other members of the team of owners who've been coming and going and chipping away at the difficulties for about nine months.

Contrary to the usual rules of astronomy the sky has been perfect for the first light. Indeed we had a record breaking 21.9 on the sky quality metre this week.

Olly

PS I hope Per will post a video of the self closing flap, a bit of engineering which resembles a medieval seige engine intended to lob horse carcasses into enemy castles. It makes me chuckle every time I see it operate.

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Naemeth

Naemeth

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I look forward to seeing the outcome of some of the data you're gathering - you may end up with too much to process!


PS I hope Per will post a video of the self closing flap, a bit of engineering which resembles a medieval seige engine intended to lob horse carcasses into enemy castles. It makes me chuckle every time I see it operate.

The self closing roof really is marvelous to watch :).

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mftoet

mftoet

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Great accomplishment!

Incredibly exciting, though, to watch the computer decide that the time has come, the sky is clear, so it opens the roof

Olly, I recon you've secretly installed a large alarm bell on the roll-off roof that will wake you (and the rest of Étoile) when the sky clears at, say, 4 o'clock in the morning?

Per, have you considered a way to prevent wild boar entering the observatory? :wink2:

wildboar.jpg

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ollypenrice

ollypenrice

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Great accomplishment!

Olly, I recon you've secretly installed a large alarm bell on the roll-off roof that will wake you (and the rest of Étoile) when the sky clears at, say, 4 o'clock in the morning?

Per, have you considered a way to prevent wild boar entering the observatory? :wink2:

wildboar.jpg

Brilliant!  I won't show this to Cachou, though, since she came decidely second in her last encounter with one of these...

Olly

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perfrej

perfrej

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Thanks folks!

I just got home a few hours ago and have settled in the normal Friday night proceedings (Chablis, simple food and the best available company). At 17:32 ACP opened the roof and the rig is currently waiting for darker skies for a new run of LRGB flats. The last batch was accidentally run after a change of focus motor, so the dirt specks were somewhat large.

I am going to let the data flow for quite a while before doing anything serious processing wise. The rate at which the data flows in is breathtaking, so it is better to let it go at it for a while before doing processing. Just the first two nights brought 14 solid hours with one lost sub (some shake happened, don't know what).

Thanks Olly for all the support!

/per

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Tinker1947

Tinker1947

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You may need some sort of Owl deterrent i have a cat type  but it works with any warm blooded animal, just puts out a noise at a frequency that we can't hear, so there's no harm done, after a week the cat stopped wandering bye......That if it's some sort of bird perching on the equipment... 

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ollypenrice

ollypenrice

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Great boar shot! Haha! Perhaps we should add a door... Nearest I have seen them, though, are in the field far across the stream. What do you say, Olly?

/per

Seriously, yes. I doubt that the boars would go inside but they do, in very hard winters, sometimes root about round our garden in the night. I'll get a door on it. It will keep the cat out at least. Yes, the cat that peed on my open eyepiece case twice. And lived. Nine lives? Oh no, only three...

:evil: lly

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mftoet

mftoet

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My closest encounter with wild boar was several hairpin turns down the road to Étoile. (The next image is actual footage; no Photoshop).

wildboar_090127.jpg

In practice, I don't think it will be an issue, though getting a door on the observatory won't hurt.  

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ollypenrice

ollypenrice

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They're rolling in! Our tandem Tak is under pressure from its nearest neighbours.

I like your avatar, but use what? HDR wavelets in Pixinsight? (Dennis on another forum said it makes everything look like a human brain!)

:grin: lly

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perfrej

perfrej

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I think the GM2000HPS would carry four TEC-140s... Good thing is that there wouldn't be any photons left for your twin-barrel Tak thing (nor for the boars to find the way to the obsy).

Since I have let myself totally at ACP's mercy I do not yet have a complete set of LRGB for my first automated light image. I have a 20-sub stack of lums to show, though :) wihout flats (they should be coming in later tonight).

/per

L.jpg

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