Gina

Those springs certainly look inadequate.

I don't bother to balance the DEC axis. The focus motor is a 28BYJ-48 stepper attached by a bracket to the lens and drives a quadrant gear on the focus sleeve. The whole rig rotates so this means that the focus doesn't change when the camera is rotated.

Chance would be a fine thing!! Tonight was looking good until today. Now although dry for a change forecasts are showing clouds! Maybe periods of clear sky it we're lucky. Haven't had a clear night I can remember!!

7 years younger than me!! 😮

I've used my MN190 with FW and OAG no problem. Superb scope.

Looks like the spring upgrade could fix the problem. Worth a go.

It shouldn't need readjusting unless you move the printer or jolt it severely. You need to make sure the adjusting screws hold their setting. The printer saves the bed position corresponding to Z = 0 and this shouldn't change.

I like to image lots of different objects and with different fields of view. I can't think of any particular favourite ATM.

Yes, I check with plate solving too.

I to set my sensor orientation to either landscape or portrait. I use the screws and connectors on the back of the camera and align them with the mount or at right angles.

That's me!! 🤣 I have a 3D printed observatory on the books but not that big...

She was my hero - showed that astronomy wasn't just for men!! R.I.P. Heather.

Very sad indeed!! 😟

That sounds like your main problem, Louise. The quality of the printer construction is a major point. I'm currently striving to improve the rigidity and precision of my printer builds. My aim is to achieve the same thing as you - bed levelling that stays set right - because if the printer does this you only need to set the bed level once and it should stay level. Yes, you need adjusting screws that don't move once set and printer construction that doesn't move in ways it shouldn't. This is engineering and if you aren't an engineer or a deft DIYer it's a problem. I hope someone else can offer some suggestions. I should add that I haven't had any experience of (or even seen) an Ender 3 Pro so I don't know what the bed adjuster screws are like. Some photos may help us to make suggestions if you could manage it. OR other owners of these printers may be able to help.

Been thinking how to reply to this. I have experimented with a number of different automatic bed levelling devices but everything I've tried has had problems of one sort or another. Many of these devices are already supported on firmware such as Marlin or with the Duet control board. Of course, I'm always out for perfection and what may be alright for many may not satisfy me.

I presume there is a good reason for using an Altair camera rather than ZWO. Could someone enlighten me, please? I would be interested to know. All varieties of all sky camera interest me as indeed all astro imaging systems.

Thank you. Astrodon 3nm filters and avoiding saturating the stars by keeping the gain/exposure combination low enough.

Looking at the hardware, I see I haven't yet added a connector for the rain detector. One 4 pin connector to add - 2 for power 2 for relay contacts.

Arduino sketch syntax adjusted, compiled and uploaded to Arduino Nano so that's ready for testing. // Filename :- ROR_Control_2020-02-07 // bool roofOpen = false; bool roofOpening = false; bool roofClosing = false; bool timerRunning = false; int time = 0; // int Threshold = 400; // 2v analog to digital threshold - 1023 = 5v int currentLimit = 115; // Motor current sense output gives 140mv per Amp 4A = 140x1024x4/5000 = 115 // (100 corresponds to 3.5A) int timoutCount = 180; // Timout in seconds - amount of time alloweed to open or close roof int pbClosePin = 3; // Close Push Button int pbStopPin = 4; // Stop Push Button int pbOpenPin = 5; // Open Push Button int detRainPin = 6; // Rain detector // int MotorInAPin = 7; // Motor In A int MotorInBPin = 8; // Motor In B // int MotorCSPin = A2; // Motor Current Sense // int rpiClosePin = A3; // Remote Close int rpiStopPin = A4; // Remote Stop int rpiOpenPin = A5; // Remote Open // int limClosedPin = A6; // Closed Limit Switch int limOpenPin = A7; // Open Limit Switch // int rpiFaultPin = 13; // Remote Fault Sense // // void setup() { pinMode(pbClosePin,INPUT_PULLUP); // Close Push Button pinMode(pbStopPin,INPUT_PULLUP); // Stop Push Button pinMode(pbOpenPin,INPUT_PULLUP); // Open Push Button pinMode(detRainPin,INPUT_PULLUP); // Rain detector // pinMode(MotorInAPin, OUTPUT); pinMode(MotorInBPin, OUTPUT); pinMode(rpiFaultPin, OUTPUT); } // // void StartTimer() { timerRunning = true; } void OpenRoof() { MotorInAPin = HIGH; roofOpening = true; StartTimer; } // void CloseRoof() { MotorInBPin = HIGH; roofClosing = true; StartTimer; } // void StopMotor() { MotorInAPin = LOW; MotorInBPin = LOW; } // void LimitReached() { StopMotor; timerRunning = false; } // void MotorStalled() { StopMotor; rpiFaultPin = HIGH; timerRunning = false; } // void timeOut() { StopMotor; rpiFaultPin = HIGH; timerRunning = false; } // // Test all buttons, inputs and rain detector for change // void loop(){ if (timerRunning) { time++; if (time > timoutCount) { timeOut;} } if (digitalRead(pbOpenPin) == LOW) { OpenRoof; }; if (digitalRead(pbClosePin) == LOW) { CloseRoof; }; if (digitalRead(pbStopPin) == LOW) { StopMotor; }; if (digitalRead(detRainPin) == LOW) { CloseRoof; }; // if (analogRead(rpiOpenPin) > Threshold) { if (!roofOpening) { OpenRoof; }}; if (analogRead(rpiClosePin) > Threshold) { if (!roofClosing) { CloseRoof; }}; if ((analogRead(rpiStopPin) > Threshold)) { StopMotor; }; // if ((analogRead(limClosedPin) > Threshold)) { LimitReached; }; if ((analogRead(limOpenPin) > Threshold)) { LimitReached; }; // if ((analogRead(MotorCSPin) > currentLimit)) { MotorStalled; }; } // End

The test rig is to emulate the roof with drive motor and limit switches. I shall power it from a bench PSU. I have a 12v DC motor/gearbox with 8mm shaft (with 1mm flat) and I have some microswitches to use as limit switches. The motor shaft rotates at around 15 rpm - 4s per revolution, so I shall wan't some 3D printed gears to increase the time emulating the opening and closing of the roof plus a base to hold it all together.

I have a couple of logic issues to sort out with the INDI driver code but also I shall need a test rig to see if it works before I install it in the observatory.

One of the forecasts for tonight was for more heavy showers, two others for clear periods. My rig is reassembled and tested and ready to go back out but I'm undecided at present. Might not risk it again tonight.

I trusted the forecast last night and being clear sky started imaging but between one download and the next, 3m later, a sudden hail storm arrived and drenched my kit after which it didn't work until I had dried it out overnight. Of course I closed the roof ASAP but it was a deluge!!

ATM I have a filter wheel on each camera but I don't have enough filters to need two filter wheels. With camera lenses I can only do narrow band as they are not apochromatic down into the deep red. For LRGB eg. for galaxies I need an APO telescope. So I only need Ha, OIII and SII. This means a single filter for one camera and two in a filter wheel for the other. I shall have to decide on which filter goes where. Since OIII and SII need more imaging time than Ha and also both seem to need the moon out of the way I think I need both available at the same time. That just leaves the Ha. I think that will go on the same camera as the SII since some DSO have negligible SII and thus it makes sense to be able to image Ha and OIII at the same time. This also means less focus change as Ha and SII are both in the deep red.

I rotate the entire imaging train - camera, filter wheel, lens and remote focuser system. All optical components are solidly screwed together.