Gina

Dome sealed back on. I'll leave the sealant to go off and take it out later.

Re-focused - think this might do.

Good point. Mind you no anemometer is going to read the true wind speed unless it's high up and well away from buildings or trees. Few people will have a suitable place to erect a tall mast for the wind instruments. There's a fight for my best location!!

Testing ASC - the FoV is now fine but the focus is still out so I'll have to adjust it.

Eventually managed to get the dome off!! That Gorilla silicone sealant is strong stuff!! Had to get a hacksaw to it. Once the dome was off I easily pushed the lens back in place. In a while I get the electronics unit and test the ASC. Need a break first.

Now have the ASC safely indoors ready to work on, leaving mast pipe outdoors on the grass. First job is to get the dome off then I can see if I can push the lens down into the camera.

Looked at ASC and can see the problem - lens is crooked, not properly down onto the camera. To difficult to fix in situ so will have to bring it indoors. Might remove it from the mast outdoors to avoid more possible damage to the dome.

I just used a Hall effect switch and tiny magnets on the anemometer to count revolutions for wind speed. That's with my own design 3D printed anemometer.

I may be able to access the ASC from inside the scope room with the roof open with steps. I'll look tomorrow.

Oh yes, I know when I've have enough of something! I always find it best to stop and leave it and do something else.

It would seem so but it was only a light touch! Guess I'll have to take it all apart again to see what's gone wrong. I think the lens must have moved relative to the camera. Might be able to see if I put a ladder up against the observatory wall but with all the rain we've had lately I think the ground will be too soft. I'm not touching it anymore tonight - had enough of it for today!!!

"I don't believe it!!!!" OK so Ive got the ASC operating - sort of!

yes indeed.

All pipes attached to ASC and cables and pipes fed thought mast fitting and though mast pipe and out of hole in the side. Fitting and ASC pushed onto mast top. Mast with ASC taken out to observatory and erected on north side then fastened to wall bracket. Unfortunately, I had an accident on the way out and caught the dome on the wall of the house imparting a horrible scratch!! I'l see how bad it looks and see if I want to but a replacement at £16 plus P&P coming to just under £21. A bead of silicone sealant was put round the bottom of the dome. It should be possible to get it off if I need to.

Mast now cut to length.

The usual problem of where to put the sensors arises. The wind instruments want to be in an area relatively clear of wind obstructions but the ideal position would obstruct my astro imaging and that is top priority! I don't think all the various sensors need to be close together - I could collect the data indoors, if I can work out a suitable method. The outdoor temperature and humidity sensor(s) can be in a Stevenson Screen mounted on the north wall of the observatory. Atmospheric pressure could be either indoors or outdoors in the Stevenson Screen. Rain gauge wants to be in a relatively clear area and not sheltered when the wind blows. Most difficult are the wind speed and direction instruments, as mentioned above. In the past these and associated mast have spoilt many of my astro images and I don't want that happening again.

Read through the thread and I see you're not implementing a full weather station - just enough for controlling your roof. I expect to add cloud sensor and SQM meter in time but currently I'm looking at a pretty much standard weather station with wind speed and direction, temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure and rain measuring. Actually, I'm not so sure adding a weather station to my KStars/Ekos/INDI system is really needed. Think I'll look into other ways of using WiFi.

I plan to convert this to a Raspberry Pi based weather station. I want to use WiFi to avoid cables (which get eaten be rats!). OK I know it will want power but I can probable protect that in conduit and an aluminium pipe that will form the mast for the wind instruments.

I'll certainly be looking at your weather station implementation Wim as I want to make it INDI compatible and use the RPi with WiFi rather than Arduino. I'm using the Melexis MLX90316 rotary encoder chip for the wind vane with Arduino code and don't know if there's RPi code for it. OTOH I'm not entirely happy with this chip and considering other ways of measuring the wind vane angle.

I'm looking at this again - in between other projects. I miss having a weather station!

Done a bit more on the ASC. Soldered the wires of a 4 core cable to the Peltier TEC and dew heater. Red - dew heater control -ve Yellow - 13.8v - dew heater +ve Green - 0v - TEC -ve Blue - Cooling control - TEC +ve Reason for colour choice was Green is my power ground colour Yellow is 12v/13.8v standard colour Red represents heat Blue represents cold These are the wire colours in the cable.

Great!!

-6.2°C I'm satisfied! 😀

-5°C

-3.5°C