fwm891

Made up the door end frame, put a few temp screws through the bottom rails of each so I can take the clamps into the dry. I'm still trying to decide on whether to run permanent long tracks or to terminate the tracks at the end of the obsy and add on extension rails when I need to open up. I did this on a previous obsy and it worked well - jury out at the mo 🤔 Next stage on this is the dig out the central area below the concrete block level ready for a water barrier.

Rain stopped play for the moment - progress so far today... Just put in place and held with a couple of clamps. The track support rails are odd bits of 4x2 placed for effect - the proper ones will be 4.3 Mtrs so the roof can extend past the end of the lower fixed wall.

Made a start on the sleepers today, cutting half-lap joints and adding (taking away!) a bevel to aid water run-off. Then clear up the created mess... Into the workshop now to make some layout poles ready to start marking out and cutting the frame timbers.

Block work foundations are down. Woodworking now 👍

Not blaming FLO in anyway - it's beyond their control. Lisa and Grant keeping me updated. Timber arrived today. All the sheet material went straight in the workshop to keep it dry. All the rest is treated so no problem there. The postcrete is wrapped up with the barrow on top. Mix of 47x100 (4x2), 47x75 (3x2), 100x200 (4x8) and the shiplap (behind the stack) is 125 x 19 (5x¾) coverage is 119mm (4½)

CEM60's still delayed...

Roof definitely.

That's the thing Gordon, I'm imaging only (well 99% anyway as I have aa 10 inch Dob for visual) and work remotely from inside the house so no need to worry too much about tripod legs. Just need the mount so I can finalise the internal measurements ([removed word] on iOptron… fingers out)

That depends on the tripod and in my case the need for flexibility. The Tri-pier is incredibly ridged and will sit on a concrete foundation isolated from the observatory building. My observatory will offer the quick usability a chance clear night might offer but I also want to go to location with a wider horizon and a pier in that situation is useless.

Not happy

👍 ??

Tom - There is a bigger version at nearly twice the price... Timber and ironmongery all ordered and due to arrive early next week. Hence the bad weather. Found a softish spot when working on the foundation trench so I'll hammer some broken paving slabs in to it - plenty of those.

If you have your guide settle distance set to zero or one (which it seems to default to) and a long settle time, SGP will sit there until those parameters are met before beginning a sequence, same between frames. I set my time at 3 sec and the distance to 0.6 (or 6?)

The good thing about curved vanes is the reduction/elimination of diffraction spikes. As for depth the depth is needed at the central boss where two fixing points can be used to stop twisting and the third (forming a triangle) at the tube wall.

Correct James. I've chosen to use a mixed pier/tripod to give me some flexibility should I take the scope to a location with a wider horizon. The feet of the tri-pier will locate in holes in the obsy so when things are returned the re-alignment of the PA will be simpler, the tri-pier will have its leg/column height set to maintain the leg spread. It's VERY SOLID!!! Currently waiting for a couple of material quotes to arrive from local suppliers. Not ordered the wheel/tracks yet either...

Been playing as it's raining....

It's a start....

Hell, spent ages forgetting feet & Inches for the much better metric stuff (I still have ten digits which helps 🤔) The outside dims of the obs are: 2000 mm x 1750 mm That's: 78¾" x 69" with a wall height of 1220 mm (48"). Walls are 100mm thick (4") Total height 2100 mm (82¾"). The height may change slightly depending on how I suspend the floor. At present my aim is to dig out inside the foundations to give me an air gap under the floor. However I may just raise the wall plates which will increase the overall height by about 100 mm (4"). Time will tell. Yesterday I began lifting turf and breaking a channel through paving slabs in preps for digging the foundations: Dry postcrete layer under concrete blocks bringing foundations to ground level, then a 200 x 100 (8" x 4") treated sleeper on a mortar bed to remove any inconsistencies in my block laying 🤫. The postcrete will cure by absorbing moisture from the ground and rain - easier to get levels sorted with the mix dry as there's no time constraints.

Are we going to get a nice piccy of the load being dispatched?

I have an old Mintron low light video cam that makes a super live finder - fitted with an old f2.8 135mm (Tamron?) lens - lots of fuzzies!

Thanks Steve, I'm not knocking FLO but I can't understand how iOptron have screwed this up. They must be loosing sales as people get tired of waiting. I've been tempted to.

Any updates on the CEM60's please

Picking up on Sara's point about WO's I have just got a ZS 73 with the Flat 73A 1x field flattener. It's a 430mm fl at f5.9 and I've just been 'playing' with it on a star adventurer with my Nikon 800E I've attached a 180s sub, 1250 iso with a 300% inset from the top left corner. I know it's on a star Adventurer mount so not the best. This is at it's standard back focus position and I'm just playing with the adjusted to see what difference small changes make...

Try not to take your background so dark as your loosing a lot of fine detail - great start