Gonzo

Some pictures with the scope and mount in the box. The flower box will be moved The box needs more Ronseal.... It's a work in progress. Also, I need to order one of those solar ventilation system to create an airflow in the box to avoid mould.

Here's a picture of the 350mm high pier from Teleskop Service. I will be fixing the pier legs to the bottom of the box, 3 holes, through bolts .... I've made the bottom quite slippery with that Ronseal Also going to have the box on little round anti-slippery adjustable feet, as the balcony is not quite 100% level and the box rocks a bit. And the tiles are mega slippery....

Finally uploaded the pictures to my server. Updates from Germany... Didn't even come with a how to assemble it instructions... lol fast forward... and here's the box build: There was however an issue on the first night out, it rained and I didn't close the lid correctly. The little black skirt around the lid got trapped and you guess what.... some water entered the box. Well, there was another design flaw with I did fix with more wood.

So I have received my order, the pier is nice, however I've found the following issues with it: The centre bolt which hold the EQ3 to the pier adapter is too short (had to use my original bolt for the time being) There is no way of doing a proper polar alignment, I will have to make a opening in the pier tube to be able to use a spanner to tight down the bolt once it's polar aligned. It's a design flaw in my eyes. The motor for the focuser, the adapter is not the right size. It's off by about 2 to 3 mm. The motor sticks out too much, the belt is not properly aligned. Something I will have to amend once back home. The box is not setup on the balcony, pictures will follow soon. Still have TONS to do on it to make sure it's OK to be used.

Called them this morning to double check I could use my paypal account despite the registered address not being in Germany, they said: ok. They cancelled my order this afternoon due to the paypal registered address not being in Germany, had to place it again with my visa card instead of using paypal. oh well, they've lost €300 in the order now, halved it. Just bought what I needed for now, will get the rest from a UK seller when I'm back home

While I'm in Germany, taking advantage of this and buying a few things from Teleskope Service to save on shipping costs. Got myself a pier to replace the tripod (after a few scare and a few collisions...) a motor for the focuser and a MiniGiro with accessories for my Skywatcher 130p Heritage.

I have finally arrived in Germany for my two weeks holidays. Already been doing some work. And as expected, the weather is Rubbish. I really do need some dry days to build the box, ie: I could do without the rain ....

The lid on my box doesn't fully open, ie: not going 90 degree. This is on purpose as I don't need to have the lid fully open. You can buy longer stroke actuators and mount them differently. I got my actuators from Gimson Robotics, highly recommended.

Oh yeah, truly flat pack :

One thing that I was concerned about right from the start is the weight of it (the box). The entire box is 56Kg in total. I have yet to weight the entire scope (scope+imaging rig+tripod). I don't think it's going to be much of an issue on the balcony

And now for the ultimate test: will it fit in the car (I have a BMW 120D coupe) .... From that angle... it looks quite big, however... Not much gap between the shock towers and the lid It's a success.

I have today finished installing the skirt around the lid.

Thanks Jimmy. On issue that came up lately (well, almost from the start... lol) is cable management. I use cable ties for the wires from the AstroEQ to the motors, it works ok but it's not perfect and has limits (limits that can cause disaster if reached...) in the way the wires are routed. While browsing the Cloudynight website, I've found the following article 10MICRON GM2000HPS and was looking at the following picture for the cable management which I think it's rather neat and I will copy: (we all know where that picture was taken and the owner of this amazing setup )(depending how well my observatory goes, I will look into a "real" mount...)I need to buy some extra long USB cables and some sleeve to wrap them in = cable management sorted.

More progress... As previously mentioned, there is a design flaw in the dimensions of the lid (rookie mistake...). Came up with the following to tackle it and stop the rain coming in at the same time. It's only stapled to the lid (and I will do the other two sides...) I need to buy a couple of bathroom style extractor fans to create an air flow in the box.

Thanks. No it doesn't fit through the door as it is. I have built the box so that it can be easily "flat packed"... to fit in the car. It can be dismantled as follow: the floor | the lid | two side panels in one piece each | the other two are fully dismantled

a little more progress.... ~~~ I will staple it once assembled at the final destination.

To be honest, it is a lot harder to plan and put in place than I thought it was going to be. But I'm always up for challenges.... You really really really need to think about all possibilities

Some updates about my box: This is what the box now looks like, the lid has received three coats of Ronseal wood protection and the sides two coats. I still have to think about sealing the lid when in close position due to a rookie mistake in the design. As I am now three weeks away from taking this to Germany I don't have much time in doing it again. Inside.... nice and compact. And no I will not leave the Makitta in it.... deployed... front view side view, keen eyes will spot that the actuators are missing. My power supply went up in smoke, literally, a few weeks ago. doh Waiting for a more powerful one Plans are as follow: "flat pack" the box and transport it to final location in three weeks time, assemble it over there in Germany. leave the scope here build a mock up frame of the box to carry on testing, wiring etc.... comes Christmas season, I will take the scope and bits over and go live. Comments are always welcome please.

Hit a brick wall with my split roof design, so it's back to my original idea: one single piece. Going to order a second linear actuator, one is capable of doing the job but rather have two just in case.

Just thought about posting this one here too AstroEQ with Kstars/Ekos under Debian / Raspberry PI

Here's a quick video of the half roof opening, helped by a linear actuator. This side will be against the wall of the house on the balcony.

As I am unable to find a suitable roller shutter for my roof idea, I'm going for a conventional roll-on-roof now.

more progress today... x x The mount will be controlled by AstroEQ. A quick video of it. I don't have the right length for the RA motor belt so I will have to order one.

It's an EQ3-2, yes there is a counter-weight bar. Not shown in the above pictures. It was taken in consideration in the measurements of the box.

Some long overdue updates on this remote observatory box... x x x x The box as you there was being held by some temporary L brackets to see the overall volume of it. And of course to make sure that all my measurements were correct. As you can see, the telescope fits nicely inside. There are tons of things to do before I ship it over to Germany. Here's a quick video of it: