saac

I would recommend a permanent setup 100%  -it makes life so much easier. The only caveat I would put on that, I think it now applies to all astro investments,  given our weather do you see yourself getting a return on the investment.  If you can answer yes to that then go for it you will not regret it. Many will advise not to go down the converted shed root citing concerns over strength and the difficult task of reinforcing the design.  I don't support that view having converted a commercially available summer house. If you are adept at DIY then making the necessary changes to reinforce a shed is simple.  What I would also recommend is to take a look at Skipper Billy's set up - a small form factor obsy which is designed to safely house the telescope and mount only.  This would save a lot on materials and space but would probably be best suited to imaging rather than visual - or I dare say you could mount it on rails and have the structure push away. Other than that many people do make a success of just having the pier without a structure around it; you find a few example on the forum.  Anyway, keep us informed as to which way you go and good luck.   

Jim 

Looking good, hope it clears quickly for you. Be really interested to hear your thoughts once you get to shake it down , good luck  

Jim 

3 hours ago, andrew s said:

One thing still puzzles me not only in Star Trek is why is it that the artificial gravity rarely if ever fails? The ship can be falling to pieces,  all power gone but artificial gravity remains.

I do recall two episodes across the Star Trek franchise when it failed. 

Regards Andrew 

I realise that it's much simpler to film with gravity on but.......

Or the inertial dampener, or environmental control, or the lights , and what about stirring the oxygen tanks - wait that was Apollo 13     Of course there is the old question as to why when two ships meet in space are they always the right way up to each other ?   Ach we are spoiling the escapism!   I must admit I did enjoy the new Amazon series well worth it if you have yet to see it.

Jim 

Some stunning locations there Gordon.  Lovely work , you must have found that very satisfying reflecting back over all that work .

Jim 

7 hours ago, Paul Gerlach said:

Jim, I could design a spacer that you can print. I've done that for my Atik 314L.

Thanks very much Paul, I've downloaded the T2 thread plugin that you made for Fusion 360 and I thought about having a go at making a spacer myself ( I'm still a novice at 3d modelling and printing) though.  Optics is something that I must admit I need to put a wee bit more effort into understanding but your drawing yesterday really helped. My lens is not your specified 100 mm fl rather its 95 mm (supplied from Surplus Shed)  I'm going to play around with it over the next weekend and if I can't get it working them I may come back to you and take you up of your kind offer.   I actually think I may ultimately have to get a different  (proper) lens from Thor lab - my lens  from Surplus shed is an un-cemented doublet. I fear that any misalignment may result in aberrations/shadows/reflections  - but I will play around before I make the decision.  Your drawing yesterday really cleared things up and I can now see what I have to measure.  I'll let you know how I get on.  

Jim 

Paul thanks very much for that swift reply;  your drawing makes it so much easier to understand.  I think I'm only a few mm off as Lousie hinted at above,  but I had used all the spacer combinations that I had available.  I'll order up some additional extension tubes to give me  the 34  mm I need. Thanks again., Im really looking forward to using the Low Spec in school as a bench spectroscope as well as at home with the telescope   

Jim   

I am a fair bit behind with my Low Spec spectroscope - I'm hoping to make some proper progress over the upcoming Easter holidays.  Anyway, I was messing about with it today and I had a trial to see if I could get focus.  I used a CFL  and then daylight ; still some way to go  -  I can't get proper focus , I think I need to get the camera (Starlight Xpress SXVR H9C) closer in to achieve focus I think.  That said, I was relatively pleased with this effort, tantalising glimpse of some Fraunhofer lines.    If anybody has any tips for focusing I'd be grateful to hear.   

Jim 

Neat design.

Jim 

That cosmological constant it is so elusive  

On 03/03/2020 at 16:38, Gina said:

The plastic grids arrived today and my goat helped me unpack them by eating the cardboard packaging! 🤣  

Gina that has made my day.  An astro goat , SGL, Telscope House , River Valley Optics come on you are missing something here .  

Thank you GIna it's a very wet grey morning here in Fife and you have put a smile on my face. Good luck with your walkway.

Jim 

On 02/03/2020 at 21:27, Fellside said:

Louise and Jom 

Thanks for the advise. When you say a "whole real" is this a 1KG real?

Many thanks

Graham

Graham, yes as Louise said above the standard reel is 1 kg.  I can't remember exactly but I'm pretty sure it was done on one  1kg reel.  Longest part to print was the main body that was over 2 days ! My printer has an pause print function which made it a bit easier but I was glad when it was finished. Be prepared to do a little bit of fettling on the internals to get them to fit exactly - small needle file comes in handy.   It's a great project to do -I'm still working on my optics.  Good luck if you decide to do it. 

Jim 

I think I got mine printed all out on one whole real with some left over. I used PLA, I think most are doing that. 

Jim 

Good luck with it Chris I share your enthusiasm for this new tech into the amateur astro market; let's start to see what it can really offer.  It would be great to hear how you get on with it once it arrives.  Good for you giving them the backing needed to get this into manufacture. 

Jim 

Thanks for sharing that intercipere, its a really cool project; I may tackle it this summer. 

Jim 

1 minute ago, Thalestris24 said:

Maybe new springs then, or maybe I need to tighten all nuts 4? Or both things?

Louise

Yes try tightening them first Louise and see if it holds better. Of course you will need to re level the bed. I see Amazon carry replacement springs - these look like the ones I have on the Ender 5 - they are advertised as suitable for the Ender 3. 

Bed Springs

JIm 

If the wheel nuts are able to turn with the lightest of touch then the springs are not exerting enough force to hold. I'd try your idea of upgrading the springs. Notwithstanding what I said above my spring length is 20 mm but the springs are different so the spring constant will not be same as yours. The length is not the crucial factor rather the force being exerted. 

I suspect  the height of the springs will legitimately vary from model to model. At the end of the day what is important in the spec of the spring is that it provides enough tension to prevent the screw from rotating and hence losing the height setting. The height will differ then as spring constant differs.  Comparisons of height between different models and even similar models will be largely irrelevant .

Jim 

16 minutes ago, Thalestris24 said:

Maybe the ender 5 has better springs?

I think they may be the same actually the main difference between the two models I think is just the frame arrangement, however the bed is held differently.  I wouldn't imagine that the springs are that expensive nor difficult to swap out so as Ginia says replacements may sort the problem. It would at least eliminate the source and give you peace of mind. 

Jim 

2 minutes ago, Thalestris24 said:

I don't know - does anyone else here have an ender 3 pro?

I have the Ender 5 Louise which shares a lot of the components with the Ender 3 and to date I have only levelled the bed on my initial set up back in October. It holds its level pretty well. I'd re check the tightness of the adjusters and their springs, do a bed level and then monitor it. 

Jim 

it's in an engineer's blood, our DNA, we can't help it .  

Jim

2 hours ago, Nok said:

Hi, I've checked Sky-Watcher EQ3 PRO Go-To Astronomy Mount and it says it can rotate max 3.4 deg/sec. What is the maximum rotation speed of commercially available mount? Does any one know? Or 3.4 is more -or-less the fastest?

 

Are you in a hurry ?     Seriously though I'm not sure that slewing speed is really much of a design consideration for a mount, normally people would be concerned with things such as tracking accuracy and payload.  Time spent slewing to different targets is really of little consequence. 

Jim 

Chris, the Physics Department at Glasgow  do indeed have an very proactive outreach program -  every year they put on a day long series of workshops and lectures aimed at 5th and 6th year students. Particles Physics has figured highly over the past few years. For those schools in the central belt it really is an amazing service.. Coming across from Fife we had to travel a little further but it was well worth and I would thoroughly recommend it to any school (Physics depts). 

As for youngsters picking things up quickly - I wonder if it's a relativistic  thing - perhaps we are slowing down   

Jim  

Chris, just over a year ago I took a group of 6th year Physics pupils to a workshop at the University of Glasgow Physics department. This was one of the activities that was set up and I was surprised just how well the students took to the exercise; they tuned into it a lot quicker than I did    It's good to see that CERN are making it widely available; in a class setting it would certainly help liven up what can otherwise be a bit of a dry topic. Thanks for sharing the link. 

Jim     

On 12/02/2020 at 08:50, drjolo said:

If someone is interested in this solution please let me know, so I clean up all files and share STL objects to print, schematic, Arduino sketch and control panel software. Panel is for windows system only, but the communication protocol with Arduino is pretty simple, so it can be rewritten to other systems as well. Or it can also be controlled using serial port terminal as well. 

RR Her spectrum below - captured already with modified LowSpec spectroscope:

 

Lucas (drjolo) that is an amazing upgrade you have made, I can imagine these mods make it a joy to operate remotely. I'm just about to start testing my optics on my Low Spec but just to echo what Eric said; if you were ever to make your plans/code available then it would be gratefully received. I would also be keen to see and hear how you  get on with using the LowSpec , I really want to understand how this amazing spectrometer can be exploited. 

Jim 

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Houses_of_Parliament_and_Big_Ben_in_London.jpg

They do say charity begins at home  

Jim