steppenwolf

I have found that Sangria, as made by Janie, cures most of life's maladies and when you wake up on the patio the next morning, there's no hangover either, amazing.

I have considered this question on numerous occasions and I always come to the same conclusion - if you add a filter to the light path then for the focal reducer/field flattener to continue to work OPTICALLY as required, you need to ADD spacing between the focal reducer/field flattener and camera sensor to compensate.

Chocolate and Banana Loaf for the tea tent will be arriving on Friday afternoon. Might bring a telescope and the baker too ........

That is sooooo cool - well done, what a brilliant solution! Welcome to SGL.

Thanks, Grant, looking forward to this very much!

I like mono images and often cringe for imagers you post them only to be greeted with a barrage of 'looking forward to the colour version' posts! My wife, Janie, is not so keen on them .....

Now THAT, I really like - very elegant.

Well, I give up after several days of testing and head-scratching! Unfortunately ASPS is too flaky to be relied on in a remote operating environment which is a great shame as it showed great promise as a blind solver when operated manually. Unfortunately, under CCD Commander control, it fails to respond correctly. This could be a setting that I have got wrong but either with or without the 'Taskkill' command in place, the program returns to CCD Commander too early so the next action is started prematurely. Not only that but it doesn't always solve despite good data and even when it does, it never syncs the mount to the solved position, making it useless for my purposes. Thankfully, it is only rarely that I need to carry out a blind solve so I will just revert to my old method when required. If anyone can recommend another local blind solver that can be reliably called from CCD Commander, please let me know!

This sounds like an interesting project and I too would like to see an image of what you have in mind. I have seen some digital display types but this sounds more 'analogue' (albeit with digital controller) and that sounds much more appealing.

Excellent - that is working very well indeed - the drive ring looks very circular and smooth, nicely done! As you already have the electronics working on the bench, the hook-up to the motor-drive should be pretty straightforward. Is that the encoder on top of the drive cog?

The simplest solution is to use a lead acid 12v battery installed in the dome section on the 'shelf' and a solar panel for re-charging. I used this system with great success on my Pulsar 2.2m Observatory. A 12v lead acid battery has a large reserve capacity to cater for dull days reducing the charging rate from the solar panel.

Additional Note 25 - Improving Start Up and Closing Down Procedures 1. Plate Solving at start of session I have noted that from time to time, usually after an automated shut-down following a cloud warning - but not always - the next session sometimes fails to plate solve the first slew as the telescope is pointing just outside the plate solve search region. When this happens, I simply run a manual 'blind solve' from MaxIm DL via PinPoint, however, I wanted to automate this smoothly and came to the conclusion that as I cannot specify a blind solve as an action in CCD Commander, I should find another way of doing it. The solution came in the form of the free software 'All Sky Plate Solver' as this allows 3rd party software (MaxIm DL) to access its search engine which is based on a local version of Astrometry.net. This feature connects to the CCD camera and telescope, captures an image, plate solves it from local data and then syncs the telescope to the solved position so that carrying out a subsequent normal plate solve now works flawlessly as the co-ordinates supplied by the mount are already very accurate. I now run this as an 'external program' in the form of a batch file using an action in CCD Commander to call the batch file:- Batch File for Calling All Sky Plate Solver : Run All Sky Plate Solver start "" "C:\Program Files\PlateSolver\PlateSolver.exe" /solve taskkill /f PlateSolver.exe 2. Disconnecting the CCD Camera at the end of a session The short nights of summer highlighted a small issue with my close down procedure in that it got light at 03:00! Part of the close down included warming up the camera and then I would manually turn it off when I awoke later in the morning. However, this left the camera running off-cooler but with the fan operating and the sensor 'live' for up to five hours unnecessarily. The solution was to write a VBScript to disconnect the camera from MaxIm DL, wait a few seconds and then physically turn it off under software control of the eight port switch unit that I built to control the observatory equipment. VBScript File for Disconnecting and Turning Off My CCD Camera ' Disconnect Camera from MaxIm DL Dim cam ' "The" Camera object Set cam = CreateObject("MaxIm.CCDCamera") cam.LinkEnabled = True cam.LinkEnabled = False WScript.Sleep 5000 ' Turn OFF Camera driverID = "ASCOM.LesveDomeNet.Switch" set o = CreateObject(driverID) o.Connected = True o.SetSwitch 5, False I am currently working on a new VBScript to control cloud cover .............

I shall be watching this project with great interest as, before my upgrade of a couple of years ago, I too had this style of Pulsar observatory and had on paper a different solution, although I think your solution has much merit as it keeps the motor in a 'fixed' position. I was going to use Subaru Impreza cam belts for my toothed belt but in my design, the belt would have been attached to the wall and the motor was going to be fitted to the dome on a sprung mounting. In either design, you do have to make allowance for the dome moving laterally, which it will do. The LesveDome system is excellent and I used it for a year or so on my new style Pulsar dome but upgraded to Pulsar's newest system when it was introduced 18 months or so ago. You will find the LesveDome system to be very capable and flexible with a real bonus thrown in - buying a second K8055N controller will give you access to 8 software controlled ports to further automate your observatory. I wish you luck with the automation project.

I like that a lot and the design saves the requirement for a full chain loop - excellent!

OK, I appreciate that it was perhaps a little over the top but somehow or other, I ended up hand-delivering the extension cable to Olly at Les Granges – after all, I did need to know that it had worked correctly ........... This was my first visit to Les Granges and I have to say that Janie and I really enjoyed ourselves and I can confirm Olly and Monique’s legendary reputation for hospitality. Our room was tidy, comfortable, stacked with interesting books (although perhaps a little heavy on cycling tomes!) and our bedroom window overlooked the most magnificent views over the staggeringly beautiful mountain countryside in which Olly’s rustic home resides. A guided tour of this astronomy oasis proved why Les Granges is so popular with astronomers as there is a wide range of instruments available for visitors ranging from a 20” Dobsonian to Olly’s weapon of choice – his dual Takahashi FSQ 106 equipped wide-field photon-grabber mounted on the Mesu 200 mount that first brought this device to my notice some years ago. Of course, Olly’s version of the mount is powered by steam rather than the ultra sophisticated electronics that my own Mesu mount uses but then – and this is the point - Olly sits up all night with his guests showing them the night sky and how to use the equipment to its best, whereas these days, I just go to bed and let the computer do all the work! On the subject of the night sky, despite an unhelpful Lunar phase, the skies above Les Granges were without doubt wonderful and the ribbon of the Milky Way, so clearly visible overhead, was testimony to the lack of light pollution and the crispness of the atmosphere – we are talking ‘Alpine’ here! And, now that Olly has the correct lead for the Meade 14” SCT (yes, it did work - phew!), you can even use this recently acquired instrument and focus it minutely for observing, although quite why you would want to observe when you could be imaging on that dual Tak rig is quite beyond me ......... Of course, you don’t have to use Olly’s gear, you can bring your own equipment and mount it on one of the two conveniently placed concrete plinths set aside for just this purpose. Is there anything I didn’t like? YES there was one thing – Olly should be more generous with his skies, I want those skies here in the UK and I want them NOW ........ Of course, it isn't all about astronomy - even Les Granges has to accept daytime hours - and the surrounding countryside is breath-taking with cycling, climbing, parascending and simply driving around soaking up the views of wild rivers, high mountains and deep gorges to be enjoyed as well. Our visit to the Gorges de la Méouge will remain with us forever. I am really looking forward to my next ‘excuse’ to visit. Errrrr, ummmm, are there any other technical issues I can help you with, Olly?

I am in the process of building a parapet just in case it doesn't actually work

..... and here she is:-

Hi Olly, The solution is ready and will be with you soon:-

Sorted, you shall have it early next week!

Olly, I could make you up a small extension cable with a lower profile right angle plug and an in-line socket. What diameter is the plug shaft? I suspect that it is 3.5mm?

It looks like there it may be a stereo plug with three connections - the shaft near the plug casing, a centre connection in the shaft and the tip?

How many terminals are there on the plug, Olly?

That's what I'd do - I wouldn't take a Dremel to it under any circumstances! Shocking design - good ol' Meade!!

You don't get an immediate response from their server most likely for the reason you suggest - leave it for another 12 hours and hopefully you will get your notification.

Very neat and compact, Michael, I hope it performs well for you.