DaveS

The main astro job for the summer will be getting as much done on the obsy as possible, getting cladding delivered being the main hitch. Commissioning the DDM85 / ODK12 / G3 16200 is something I hope to be able to do while waiting for building materials. As I have a big TG cover I should be able to run it even with the obsy half built.

A lot of the delay was my own fault. I had become so fixated on bringing the telescope in through the south wall before building it that I completely overlooked the possibility of bringing it through the door. D'oh! Trying to find a supplier of cladding that will deliver. Wickes have it in stock, but only "Click and Collect", yeah, like I'm going to get 12 packs of 2.4m long cladding in my car .

My 130 triplet apo is on a pier bolted to a concrete platform 1.5 x 2 x 0.5 m, and on occasion I've been on it when imaging and seeing no sign of vibration. The obsy I'm building is sat on a similar platform 2.2 m square and varying from 0.4 to 0.6 m thick. With foundations the builders reckon there's 8 tonnes or so of "stuff" in there. As this is purely imaging and remote controlled there will be nobody in there when operational.

*sniff* £6k? I spent more than that on my DDM60 *sniff* /snob Actually brilliant video, loved it!

Sorry, my parenthesis was about what's in the sky now, not what Pete will be talking about. Sorry for the confusion

"Locked Down but Looking Up", the 800th (!) episode. Something for everyone, Chris is in his back garden, but talking to astronomers using remote imaging (Pro level I think), Maggie is going to tell us how we can help analyse Mars data, while Pete is looking at what's in the sky now (The moon ). On BBC4 at 10 o/c as normal.

Good to hear that you've managed to get it working as it should, it took me long enough, with an email exchange with Wolfgang at ASA. I won't bore you with details, except there was a bug in Sequence. My DDM 85 is on the pier, but still awaiting the ODK12 due to lockdown. Have to agree that it's a great pity that ASA have abandoned the "low end" (Low end, yeah, right). The only way of getting a second hand DDM is if someone is upgrading to a DDM100, which is an £18k mount. In an email exchange with Rupert he indicated that Dr Keller was back on the job of the next version of Sequence, hope it's less cantakerous.

I have an AAG Cloudwatcher and Talon roof automation system incoming for my oby. It will be interesting to see how they interface with the ASA software.

You can never be over mounted, go for the biggest payload you can afford.

Chroma aren't quite so ruinously expensive, but still un-cheap.

Thanks Bob. Reading back my post I can see all the typing errors (Which I'll let stand) which just go to show how wonly my eyes had gone after processing.

Thanks Gina, always good to have a second opinion, I've been staring at this so long my eyes have gone googly!

Yeah, I know it's always dodgy to write "Final" about any image, but I've been bashing my head against this for too long. I added 6 Hours 40 mins H-alpha to my original data to make a total now of, by my calculation 29 Hour 30 Mins. made up of 15 Hours RGB, 6 Hours 40 Mins H-alpha, and 7 Hours 50 Mins Luminance. LRGB through Baader and H-alpha through 3nm Astrodon. 130mm f/7 TS apo, ASI 1600 camera encoder guided on ASA DDM 60. H-alpha added to the Red stack, then Gradient Reduction. RGb into Trichromy then DDP, another GR, Colour Curves, and Saturation Boost. Luminance given DDP until the Tidal Regions were gust showing then Mask applied and a Histogram Stretch to bring out the Tidal Tail of NGC 3628 and arms of M 66. LRGB Synthesis, a light Unsharp Mask then alignment edges removed and a final gradient reduction. Phew! And that's why I'm calling it quits for the moment A shed load of Luminance would help, as would a helping of better quality H-alpha, but that it for this year in regards to aquisition.

The track is from F C Brundle, like most of us in the end. My plan too is to build the roof frame and run it along the unfastened track until It's running smoothly, then screw it down. I need to be fairly accurate as the roof will be automated with rack and pinion activation.

Since this is a semi-remote (Garden rather than Spain) automated imaging obsy I only expect to be using the lighting during commissioning / maintenance. There is also a white setting for work during the day with the roof closed.

This is an outdoor rated LED rope that's USB powered with a remote control. The other LED strips I have are 12V powered and do have a dimming function, this one just caught me out.

And with the LEDs set to red. I think they may be a bit bright, but it turns out there is no dimming function. Wish the product description had been a bit more specific.

I'll add, that while putting the first pair of posts wasn't too difficult, I could mark the position by dropping a plumb bob, getting the second pair in involved much cursing and berating myself for a cack handed nerk (Polite version of what I actually called myself). I'm not even 100% sure the support rails are truly square and level, I may need shims to level the roof rails. The only reason for having them so long is so that I can run the roof off far enough not to affect my southern view. I could, perhaps otherwise have got away with single 4.8 metre rails, though getting them into the garden might have been a bit of a palaver. I am now investigating ways in which I could mount the telescope on my own.

Been a long time since I did an update. Since my last post I have framed the south wall, put up the roof rails and run a stop gap power feed I've done a bit more work since then, adding the power to the 12v PSU and running a LED string around the top frame. More photos to follow.

That's very good. Pity the moon's come along to put an early stop to Galaxy Season else I'd suggest getting a good helping of Luminance to bring things along. Glad to see someone else using AstroArt, an underrated package IMHO. I do all my post in AA7 now, a very worthwhile upgrade over AA5 which was the last version I used.

IP65 extension lead so I can jury-rig power to the obsy until the sparks can get here, don't know when that will be, when lockdown is eased probably, and after he's dealt with the real urgent jobs.

No, it's the other way round. Drizzle requires a very precise dither. @vlaiv has quite thoroughly rubbished the idea of drizzle with amateur level imaging, but the technicalities are best explained by him rather than me. ie I don't fully understand them, but take his word for it.

From speaking to Rupert Smith at Astrograph (The UK dealer / distributor) I think ASA were moving away from "small" mounts in general. There was a development of the DDM 60 called the DDM 60 Revolution, that had the computer in a box on the mount, for imaging on the go, but I think they ran into so many problems that they just gave up, and now are concentrating on the big stuff. Their projected DDM mounts go up to the DDM 500, with yes, you guessed it, 500 kg payload. the mind boggles. ASA do a focuser, Here, but as expected, it ain't cheap!

ASA payloads are quoted for imaging as the ASA ecosystem is heavily skewed toward professional remote imaging. Visual is barely an afterthought. But yes, ASA have gone off the scale unless you can find someone upgrading to the new DDM 100, and that's unlikely.

I use an ASA DDM60 and am in the process of commissioning an ASA DDM85, and would never willingly go back to any form of guiding. In fact, to get either mount off me it would have to be prised from my cold dead hands.