Jessun

Complete! At least for now, until I have some new ideas. Reinforcing the floor came next, and I placed sheets of stainless steel in the area that I use for manouvering the Crane in and out, and then put a laminate floor on top of that. No more punching through the old wood!

Just an image to show the Sky Crane carrying its payload 40 cm over the edge of the balcony rails. Still not all wired up in this picture - but later trial runs have proven that it works! It polar aligns using the buttons on the control box to within 1 minute arc, and it can carry more than this. Much more. It is designed to carry the new upcoming Astro Physics 1600GTO at 52 kgs plus up to a 400mm RC reflector. Sadly the said reflector is way beyond my budget - and it wouldn't even fit through the doors I recently discovered no matter how I park... So I predict now that a much more modest Officina Stellare truss 10"RC reduced to f6 will live out there one day mated to something like a FLI16003ML or similar. That would make a three night project take only two - whilst providing a wider FOV compared to my current setup. I'll still be producing rather mediocre images due to the location and my below par processing skills - but I will do it quicker in the future... :-)

All cables fitted with XLR plugs. Top row is 12V power and bottom row is USB fed by a built in hub. One holds a rechargable little torch.

A 10 amp supply for the mount, a 6 amp for camera, USB hub and extras, and a 26AH gel cell battery for the levelling system, polar alignment system and lights.

An LED strip works fine for lighting the ground so I see where I roll it.

This box controls the actuators to level the device. Above it is the polar alignment camera screen.

First test rollout! It's been there before during the welding but not in one assembled piece and now the iOptron is in place. It sits on a cutoff verion of its original pier, but the little grub screws that used to hold it together have been replaced by 8 M10 bolts. Belts and braces! I haven't jacked it up yet out there as the little piece of wooden decking - a whole 80*80cm - needs some holes cut out and cement support blocks made to take the load of the three jack bolts. The black thing down the bottom is the 'Crawler' that takes the Crane over the high threshold. Inside the flat the two become one unit that I can move about for parking it somewhere. So far so good!

The nearly finished rig, measuring out the AP1600 adapter ring.

Here's the Sky Crane. The name obviously inspired by the success of the Curiosity team. It is a home made steel pier that enables me to use a big payload on my tiny balcony. It features three half tonne electric jacks that not only lift and stabilize the design but also allow me to polar align using only a switch box - meaning I save my back :-) It's seen in this image with an iOptron mount, but is really designed with the AP1600 in mind for the future. The pier weighs 130 kgs - 290lbs (including the 10 Skywatcher CW's at the rear serving as ballast) and can easily carry the same weight, such as the AP1600 and a 16" telescope - should funds ever allow that one day. It rolls out to the rail of the balcony leaving the payload over the edge - and hey presto it's like the balcony was a foot and a half bigger! Problem solved :-) The pier incorporates power supply, battery backup, a polar alignment camera and LCD display and an industrial 12V powered USB hub. It also has built in red LED lighting and snag free cable management. Any telescope that goes on it is naturally called Curiosity :-)

This is M31 - Andromeda Galaxy. Another nemesis of mine. This one was a battle as I struggled to get my Canon 600D to image anything I could use. The camera was fine, but I struggled with dew, focus, guiding etc. And I didn't know how to take flats, so this lacks all calibration. The colours are a bit off, but it's my first guided image and I'll keep it as it is as a fond memory of the early struggles. HEQ5 SW120 Canon 600D SW ED80 and MS Webcam guiding 248 minutes in total, and I think 2 minute subs. Edited in Canon Utilities

This is the Leo Triplet; three galaxies about 35 million light years away. To the left is NGC 3628 and to the right M66 and below is M65. They are gravitationally interacting and M66 features a somewhat deformed spiral arm as a result of once being close to NGC 3628. This is a 6 hour total exposure over three nights. 5 minute subs. Location central Lyon, France Orion 8"RC at f8/1600mm SW HEQ5-Pro SXVR-M25C OSC SW ED80 and Lodestar guiding Nebulosity 2.5 Capture PHD Guiding - dithered AstroArt Preprocessing and Stacking PixInsight Stretch and DBE and SCNR PS CS5 Edit

The great Orion Nebula with the 'Running Man' also visible in the top right corner. An area of active star formation. The Nebula is about 24 light years across! This is a 90 min total exposure. 3 minute subs. Location central Lyon, France Orion 8"RC at f5.4/1000mm APCCD67 reduced SW HEQ5-Pro SXVR-M25C OSC SW ED80 and Lodestar guiding Nebulosity 2.5 Capture PHD Guiding - dithered DSS Preprocessing and stacking Canon DPP edit

My nemesis. I have spend many nights trying to image this but always found it to be washed out or suffering from internal reflections. One day I'll redo this from scratch. Exposure - unknown. Data is in the bin... Location central Lyon, France Orion 8"RC at f5.4/1000mm APCCD67 reduced SW HEQ5-Pro SXVR-M25C OSC SW ED80 and Lodestar guiding Nebulosity 2.5 Capture PHD Guiding - dithered DSS Preprocessing and stacking Canon DPP edit