skippyinspace

Photos of the screw hole underneath the motor box, Any idea what this hole is for.

Thanks

Ian

Cant get the screw out with WD40 or rubber bands, As the it looks like the RA unit is loose, Can this be tightened with out the cover coming off I notice  there are holes on the underside of the cover.

Thanks

Thanks all, will find the WD 40 later this week, So I can have a go at getting the cover off this weekend

HI All,

My top RA gear isnt engaging the bottom one In the past its been an hex key to tighten the top gear What It noticed this time around is that the whole motor seems to be loose, Pulling up and down on the shaft opposite the  gear  applies movement to the gear. (Should there be a screw on this side to stop that play.  I would attempt to remove the cover but the screw holding that in has rusted and seems to have been threaded.

Any ideas on how to fix, this issue 

Photos  below

Ian

A  cautionary tale here.

Im a 50 year old who was born in Australia, In my teen years I naked eye observed and moved onto to some 10x80 Binoculars, Life moved on and 25 years ago Moved to Scotland, Had to relearn the sky and to be honest Im still struggling (Though Phone Apps are good I never seem to get them aligned right) 

So 20 years ago I purchased a Celeston 8" Newtonian,  I lived down a hole and litterly only had Sky straight up, Needless to say the scope got put away, Also had never heard of polar alignment and needless to say read that bit in the instruction manual and put it away into the too hard basket.

10 years ago move into the Countryside with a little bit of land and Nice skies so  mount gets upgraded to a moterised Ioptron SmartSky Pr and as its rural Aberdeenshire I buy a test version of the Pulsar Observatories Dome on a shed Observatory and a pier, (Under the Thread Skippyiinspace Observatory in Stargazers lounge is that story.

First night comes and Scope rotates and faces the floor, Try the manual, Same things happen, Contact local Astro Club (40 miles away) and a member comes out and in a minute fixs the issue that the motor had be aligned the other way, he is helpfull and Polar Aligns and balances the scope etc and I get a year or so of good observing then it goes out of alignment, The motor gears have a tendency o slacken off.  Can align the scope for the life of me get close but never close enough so any sessions are manual.

Fast Forward to yesterday, Ioptron Ipolar arrives and out I go, After 4 hours I get close but not close enough, Thought I should Revise on RA and Dec as I just could get the fine adjustments needed and what d I find is that I spent the night adjusting the scope using the RA Clutch and not the Ra bolts . I had also got Position 1 and 2 the wrong way around

So looking forward to tonight when I can have another go,

BTW have you seen the forecast for the next week

Ian

Postman brought me an Ioptron Ipolar, I now might get this scope finally polar aligned

Hi,

Im looking for advice an a very cheap budget £100 DSLR that suitable for Astrophotography (non modified ), Had been looking to see if there were any previous lists etc from about 10 years ago, had been thinking of the Eos 1000D as there are a few kicking about at the moment and the reviews I had found were quite positive but are there other options?

Thanks 

Ian

Great idea but I dont have a DSLR, have a Phillips SPC8000 web cam so will have to try that for now.

Thanks for the help

Ian

Hi,

Last week my 7 year old daughter took interest in my telescope so aftee a lot of work (,couldnt get it to polar align) , I managed to get mars in the view finder only to find even with tube rotation, standing on stools, ladders etc she could get to the view finder.

I was wondering if there was a cheap simple way that she could see.

Ie a webcam and a laptop, Its been a little while since ive used the scope and noticed that you can now get better aids for polar alignment and think now would be a great time to introduce her to astronomy since she seems interested 

thanks

ian

Update a year or so down the line,.

Couple of minor issues that have crept up

1) the rear facing wooden wall swelled and buckled during the summer, So may require a rebuild next year

2) Still getting some water ingress from where the water is pooling on the flat section but still think its nothing that cant be fixed with out some sealant

3) had a m8 lock nut on the shutter  fail in high wind which resulted in the shutter being removed (Before it blew away) for a couple of days while the wind dropped so that the repair could be carried out

4) Daughter born so have been banished from going to the dome on a night.

Jobs still to do

1) Improve landscaping around the dome

2) Just use the dome more

Finally got out into the obs last week with a member from the local club as I was having some alignment issues, Worked out the dovetail mount was on the wrong side. We had a 7 hour session though a lot of it was trying to iron out some problems with the scope. But in that time we moved the dome with 1 finger in all directions and was nicely protected from the wind. Saw the GRS on Jupiter and 4 or 5 M objects.

Considering this obs is on a 8x8ft base we never got in each others way and I actually believe we could have got another person in comfortably.

When all the lights are out its easy to get disorienated not being able to find the door or the light switch which is above the door!

Jobs to do sort the last leak which is above the door

Ensure the wifi reaches the Obs

arrange a fold down table to put the netbook on.

Place some sort of shade over the red lights as at time they are just in the eyeline

Start the landscaping around the dome

Which brings me to my question, What else would make my viewing more pleasurable, eg an eypiece shelf or should I just leave them in a case, Warm room is out of the question.

Thanks

Been away so thought I would post an update.

Currently still trying to get unit water tight, but mainlyt becouse I havent sealed the frame to the concreate base.

My builder fitted the door while I was away, Came back to find it was swollen shut, taking a good kick to get it opened.

Sparky finished fitting the electrics (6 sockets) and 2 white and 2 red lights but supplied the wrong bulbs and I thought I was getting dainty led's but have ended up with ones the size of brake lights!

But yesterday I ordered a home heating oil top up, my wife found the tanker driver looking at the observatory with filling hose in hand to ask her where does he attatch the nozzle.

As for the location it does have quite dark skies just the occasional passing car head lights, but until the door is fixed I'm not putting any equipment it. So I'm just waiting to see if I've got the pier height right and everything else.

Hope the photos and the link to the Gallery work,

Electrics going in later this week, Door to be done, floor to be painted then damproof course and maplin floor.

Then I'll get the mount in.

and some even earlier ones

some earlier photos

Not sure if its a DIY build but here are some photos of my pulsar observatories shed top Build