NigeB

Yes that's right - the UK office responded to me - they're based in Norwich, but I believe the factory is the one in Portugal.

Hi All, Wanted to briefly share my recent experience with Atik. I've been out of action for the last few months while replacing my roll-off-roof observatory with a dome. When I came to set everything up again a couple of weeks ago, I found that I couldn't get my Atik 460ex down to my normal operating temperature (-15°C). A bit of sleuthing with a DVM showed the power was getting through to the fan, but the blades weren't moving - so it was pretty sure to be a blown fan. It's a good few years old, well outside of warranty. I contacted Atik via their support forum and described t

Brilliant result Steve - congratulations!

Hi Steve, That's interesting. I'm toying with the chain approach and have had a very helpful exchange with @hughgilhespie regarding the design of his system, in parallel with the discussion with you here. I'm reluctant to give up on the belt yet - you've clearly managed to make it work, and actually seeing some of Hugh's solutions to the chain guide, has given me an idea for improving my implementation of the belt drive. I got the dome rotation working at the weekend (relief!), but in doing so I realised that the pressure needed between the pulley and belt to get skip-free performa

Hi Steve, Many thanks! Interesting, slippage is what I'm also seeing (but only the first few cm, which I understand in terms of the force exerted by the shutter at that part of the travel, and I think I may be able to fix it with some better spring tensioning design for the motor mount). I can see how the wheels you've implemented would help this. The other problem in my case is the lack of torque from the wiper motor, and that's more fundamental. Those planetary gear motors are much better from that perspective, but tricker to mount - however, I may need to embrace that challenge. I

Hi @sloz1664 Steve, That looks absolutely fantastic! As you know, I've been following your work and implementing your design in my 2.7m Pulsar. I've got the timing belts fitted, and am about to test the rotation. However, I've already tested the shutter drive and found that my 12V wiper motor isn't up to that task. I can open and close the shutter, but it's a heavy shutter and the load on the motor changes significantly across the range of travel from fully open to fully closed. The torque available is not enough to keep the movement under control. I see from your images that yo

Mr P. has brought me a toy from Altair... I decided I wanted to consolidate all my small cabling, power and connectivity problems into one big one And it came with Haribo. Based on the veneer of stickiness my kids leave after Haribo, these may be quite effective at fixing the box to the telescope... Seriously, it's well made - the outward appearance seems to have changed slightly compared to the first v2 units. Looking forward to fixing it up - alas I pulled down my wooden observatory a month ago and haven't yet finished setting up the dome, so it may be a few more weeks before I g

Thanks Kinch, Laurin Dave - great; I'll ask him to post them up. Nigel

Hmm: good point thanks! Fixed it...

Hello All, I've just become the owner of a used Pulsar 2.7 metre observatory. It's come with no keys (fortunately the door is unlocked!) The previous owner has sent me a photo of some keys, but he's not sure if they are for the observatory (he bought the dome second hand last year but had planning permission refused and never got to set it up and use it). I think this is a "Mk II" design. I've attached a rather poor photo of the door handle, and the keys. For those of you who own Pulsars with this kind of handle - do these look like the right keys? Thanks Nigel

That's spectacular! Nicely done indeed.

I watched the talk live last week - it was excellent - looking forward to the next. Having access to these recordings is a fantastic resource. This is a real service to the community - many thanks to the speakers and SGL team for putting in the effort to make this happen. As far as I can see this is a pretty unique initiative for the online astronomy community and you're setting a high bar for others.

Hello All, This is a bit of an odd one. I've bought a second hand observatory dome - it's a 2.9m AstroDomes one like this: http://astrodomes.com/2-9m-fibreglass-astrodome/ It's in Sussex (Lower Dicker - BN27 postcode). Once the Covid restrictions are relaxed enough to allow it, I need to go down and collect. It breaks down into two main sections and a few other bits (see photo). The two main sections are quite large, and likely to weigh around 160 kg each. So it's more than a 2-person lift. Aside from me and the seller, I'm probably going to need 2, possibly 3, other people

Excellent - nice colour detection as well.