Hmm... well.  I've just tried the new right angled plug USB lead and found the B plug is the opposite hand from the one I designed for!  Back to the drawing board - CAD software.  At least the A plug is right for the RPi.

Had a thought, rather than redesign base and camera casing top I reckon I could simply mirror image everything in the slicer and print what I've got.  Present prints are only test prototypes anyway - I shall print more accurately when I have the final design and everything fits together properly.

A couple of photos, camera casing and RPi roughly where it will go and printing the top outer casing.  Printing in cheap PLA, low resolution, for prototype.

Designed and now printing focus gears.

On 15/02/2019 at 22:19, Gina said:

A couple of photos, camera casing and RPi roughly where it will go and printing the top outer casing.  Printing in cheap PLA, low resolution, for prototype.

You are printing that flange overhung with no support?

Correct - and it was a bit too much for PLA - fine with PETG though.  I think PETG is my favourite filament.

16 hours ago, Gina said:

Correct - and it was a bit too much for PLA - fine with PETG though.  I think PETG is my favourite filament.

Chapeau!

Need to sort out comms problem before I can make any progress.

Just a test with camera on a tripod outside my living room window.  15s exposure - camera temperature 4°C - gain 50. 

Screenshot of part of the KStars FITS viewer.

I wonder if the focus is a little out?  Nice that you can see the difference in colours between Betelgeuse and Rigel though, not to mention the Hyades and Leo.

James

I think it is - I haven't got remote focussing working yet so this was manually focused before the camera was put outside.  I may get the focus sorted out tomorrow.  I think I could do with making more progress on this.

The focus isn't too bad - it's just a little bit bigger than a pixel.  Here is half the image.  There is a slight haze in the atmosphere.

With being out with the observatory the last few days, I've been thinking about where to put the ASC.  I was originally thinking of the apex of the rolling roof where the body of it would be shaded from the sun a lot of the time.  It would also be easy to screw it to the barge boards.  The downside to this, as has been mentioned before, is the trailing power cable as the roof is opened or closed.  The suggestion of mounting it on a mast attached to the NW corner of the warm room has crossed my mind again and I've been looking into this idea.  The mast would need to be spaced away from the wall by 5-6" to allow for the width of the roll off roof.  The mast would have to be high enough for the FOV to clear the roof apex and also the ASC would need a sun shield to keep the direct sun off the ASC body.

An alternative position for a mast would be with a bracket screwed to the middle framework of the observatory - the dividing wall, which is just as strong as the main corners.  This is where I was thinking of mounting my weather station mast at one time.  Now I've decided not to put it on the observatory but somewhere a lot further away.  Doesn't stop me measuring temperature and humidity in the observatory.

I already have the bracket on the dividing wall 3D printed in PETG and here are some photos of the aluminium pipe mast sitting in the bracket.  This is a 5m length and would be cut in half approx for the ASC.  An advantage of this position is that it would mean a shorter power cable (as well as not needing to move the bracket).

I'm not very happy having that large passive cooler on a mast though that is a 1¾" aluminium tube so pretty substantial.  I'm still wondering if a fan would be alright if protected from rain but the humidity would be virtually 100%.

Catastrophe!!  Was just testing with the camera on an aluminium tube with bracket/hook to clip on guttering as used before for ASC when the whole lot came crashing down though I don't know how!  I had had it up and taken some images but it wanted focussing, so I brought the rig in and refocused the lens indoors before putting the rig out again.  It seemed secure on the guttering so I closed the window - that's when the whole lot crashed to the ground outside the window.  Result - broken lens and broken USB socket on camera.

Sometimes I don't know why I bother!

Scratch that - I will not be defeated.  Broken USB socket doesn't mean the camera itself is broken.

The damage!  Looks like I was unlucky with the lens - seems it caught a sharp stone or something.  Been out with powerful lantern and searched the area but there's no sign of the front element of the lens or fragments of it.  Have to look in daylight.

Nice clear night and this is all I got.  Still high camera temperature because it didn't have time to cool, hence lots of noise.  I could see the orion nebula without a telescope.

The cheapest I can find a replacement lens is £65 ?

Been searching the ground all around where the rig fell and haven't found anything.  The lens element has totally vanished.  It could be in the pond I guess but I'm not dredging that!

I now need to think about how I proceed.  I have missed my ASC since I haven't had one working so I don't want to give up on it but it seems calling this version "Ultimate" was a mistake.

Oh no! I hope you get it sorted, it's a really interesting project...but it seems you might have invoked the 'Titanic Effect'!