Gina

FURTHER THOUGHTS I've been finding a few problems with Raspbian as the Operating System and now looking at Ubuntu Mate which has some advantages and would seem easier to set up but have to see. I may produce another Tutorial using Ubuntu Mate instead of Raspbian.

And now it's raining - brought the rig indoors a few minutes ago Next door turned their billion candle power floodlight on.

Full cloud cover now.

The cloud seems to be going

Some blue sky, clouds and contrails.

Thin high cloud tonight. Orion rising, Cassiopeia well up

Apart from that I shall have to arrange a screen to block out next door's floodlight. I can see it's cloudy but only just. At least it isn't as bad as it was with the dome. Then, of course, there's the cover and it's control to sort out.

ASC complete with casing now outdoors with pole hooked on guttering. Clearish ATM but cloud forecast. Lens moved when I attached casing - so have to sort that out.

Yes and I've also used heat to adjust the shape of levers and suchlike. Plastic does have its advantages

Tried the casing on the ASC this morning and... it didn't fit!! So I engaged brain and had a good think about possible answers. And now it does! The aluminium block was stopping the bottom engaging with the middle. Possible solutions were :- Saw a bit off the ali block (Oh no!! That's hard work!!) Redesign and print the bottom part (when will all this redesign end??) Soften the side of the middle part with hot air gun and push it out a bit from inside. I went for option 3. using the handle of a screwdriver to push the ABS outwards. Job done

Some images from tonight. Moon is up too much now for any more. It could do with dark subtraction to get rid of hot pixels. And a touch more cooling to reduce noise. I'm currently getting about 15°C of cooling. It would probably help to provide better cooling of the hot side of the Peltier TEC. Maybe some fins on the aluminium pipe just below the ASC casing. Final image is with 30s exposure, gain at 250 and gamma of 10. Oh and the picture has gone green again! Though the sky looks alright. It will be nice when I can get some clear night sky with no moon later in the evening and night when people have gone to bed, house lights are off and fewer vehicles with their headlights shining on the trees.

More work on the casing. Bottom part printed and fitted into middle part satisfactorily. (Upside down view.) Bottom part cleaned up - the cone didn't print properly so I've repaired it with filament dissolved in acetone. Middle parts glued together.

Turned on auto white balance for both red and blue. It is a red sunset but the image shows everything red whereas the trees and grass are still green.

The rain has stopped and the sun has come out so I've put the rig outside on the guttering. Here's an image. I'm having a problem with the white balance - I just can't seem to get it right. I don't know what's changed as it seems fine at first.

Designed and printed the middle bottom which is just a cylinder and also designed and now printing the bottom part of the casing that attaches to the pipe.

Successfully printed the middle top section of the casing and glued the top part to it. Here it is on the ASC. There's plenty of room inside now!

Latest image and the last for tonight I think as there's probably no point in capturing images with a nearly full moon in the FOV. This does show great promise for when the moon is out of the way though. Several stars visible including the "W" of Cassiopeia. Looks like clouds coming in from the SW so I wont leave the rig out all night without its casing to keep wet off the electronics.

I'm going to have to print the middle section of the casing in more than one part - there isn't enough on the print bed to hold it.

Camera cooling is working very well - 20°C with cooling off and just 3°C with cooling on. Dew heater is also on.

Back to a more sensible setting - 10s exposure, gain 288, gamma 25.

I think I can just about make out The Milky Way in spite of a nearly full moon. 10s exposure, gain 288 gamma 25.

Clear sky so rig back outdoors.

I think I'm satisfied that the new casing design will clear all the inside parts so I'm printing it. This will take nearly three hours! And 60m of filament - the 1Kg reels are around 400m or roughly £4.50 worth of this top quality filament. I hope this print goes alright and everything fits - I don't want to print too many of these!!!

My new 3D printers have the platform held at all four corners - works a treat Also, means 2 wheel carriages are fine since they are not required to hold the platform level just correct in the XY plane.

I was wrong about the showers having stopped and I've just been caught out - was watching the printing and not the camera display. When I looked it was covered in raindrops so I've brought the kit back in - it's wet but still working.