Bukko

10 minutes ago, Jarvo said:

Alas my poor little observatory has developed a leak after four years of solid service. 

Ive got a couple of buckets picking up the drips. It annoyingly I can’t easily track the source. 

Its not too bad at the moment so hopefully I can limp on until the spring when I can redo the roof with some Bitumen and fresh felt. 

Or we get a new observatory😈

Jarvo

As often as I can, I use a failure as a good reason not to throw good money after bad and go for an upgrade..

1 vote for a new observatory, but good luck getting it through the finance director.

Or throw a 20 pound tarpaulin over the roof until spring

Good luck,

Gordon.

Its worth trying to get any shuttering and stuff out of the way before the concrete fully hardens. Easy way to separate the template is getting a second spanner on the lower nut to support it, then undo the top nut. Should be no problem now.

But if you think the OSB is in contact with the concrete, then it's unlikely you will get the second spanner onto a nut... How does the concrete look now? Turning grey/white yet?

Oh, everyone on SGL loves pictures so don't be shy haha.

Gordon.

You should only need a couple of days for the concrete to set enough to remove the template - providing you have not tightened the nuts so much that you need to lean on a big spanner to undo them of course !!

Fitting the pier, I would wait until the base turns white; depending on temperatures, should do so in a week or two. Until then, don't try and fit the pier, even if you have perfect skies..

Good luck,

Gordon.

On 30/11/2019 at 23:14, Nigella Bryant said:

Thanks, good news, I think. I've beaten my way through the Bush into the garden shed and it's wired up and working. It seems from the fuse trip box it has it's own fuse (don't know the technical terms). It has it's own on/off switch in the bungalow. Anyway I can run a spur from that which will only be 4m away. All I need to do now is to lay 2 cat6 cable's in a trench to the bungalow into the loft and down into the second reception room. Thing's aren't looking to complicated now. 

Hi Nigella,

following this thread too now...

Good news on the mains supply to the shed, bit concerned at there being fuses. The modern replacements are miniature circuit breakers (MCB's) and they are about the same size as a fuse, but are switches. (They are a lot more than just a switch, as they will trip on high current too) If you are still genuinely using fuses, then it would be a goood idea to plan in some money to upgrade them to a modern consumer unit and MCB's. Here the internet is your friend if you don't know a good electrician who works for a fair price.

Best way to run cables, etc. is to bury (or you could run them high - if you intend to enter the bungalow and go through the loft you could do it directly. Save all the digging and concerns about future works...) best to do it through some sort of conduit. Galvanised steel is good, but so is the idea to use water pipe. Polypropylene is really tough and easier to work with. And as mentioned, it is also a very good idea to separate power from signals. Very short runs of a couple of metres does not matter, but the longer the run and more power conducted (Amperes), the bigger the potential problem becomes.

HTH.

Gordon.

On 24/11/2019 at 15:45, Nigella Bryant said:

Hope this quick sketch makes sense, obviously not exactly to scale. It's of the side of the bungalow. No property near by. There is a shed that's been built on the bank which I plan to use as a warm room. 

What are the chances of the Camelia surviving the dome build? They can grow pretty high and looks to be due south... Practice on the smaller conifers first, before turning the chainsaw on it...

Good luck with the build and I am looking forward to the thread growing..

Gordon.

5 minutes ago, Nigella Bryant said:

Thanks Gordon, I've just bought a chainsaw, lol. Yeah good idea about making a plan. I'll be measuring up once I've trimmed everything back. 

Just keep the  chain out of the ground, will blunt the teeth really quickly.

1 hour ago, old_eyes said:

Looking at the satellite view on Google Maps zoomed in to the maximum gives a good overview of the surroundings.

Only helps if you have the Lat/Long... Please don't publish though

G.

Hi Nigella,

Looks like you have a bit of work to do there... Good luck with the land clearence. (A chainsaw is your friend !!!)

It would help with positioning if you could do a rough sketch of the surroundings - house, neighbours, etc, plus slope of the land wrt North, South, etc.

Gordon.

When our old street was "upgraded" to white light lamps, the old posts did not conform to the new (taller) EU standards so were all replaced.

As they were done under a PFI, the contractor would have taken them all away for disposal. I assume there must be thousands of similar posts removed so I guess the issue is tracking them down before they are melted and turned into bean tins or something.

But the idea does sound good. Big long piece of pipe, simply cut to size. As said, watch out for zinc coating though.

Gordon.

Is it possible there is not enough mass in the assembly now to take up the backlash?

Possibly try and unbalance the axis a little and try again.

Might work, then again, might not.

Good luck.

Gordon.

Another +1 for the CEM25P.

I have owned two EQ3-2's, I have a HEQ5 and belt modded NEQ6. My son wanted to take up astrophotography again after a couple of years away and was considering another SW. On reflection, we (he) went for the iOptron.

It arrived yesterday and first thoughts are it is excellent. He has worked with all my mounts so can compare.

It is very light. (transportable) The alignment adjustments are far superior to SW. The drive engagement is better. Axis are very smooth and light, making balancing easy. When engaged, the axis are more rigid than the HEQ5/NEQ6.

The built-in GPS module is a hundred pound option for the SW.

He got it for an 80mm frac at 500mm fl so fairly similar to your application. Had no time to test yet, due to the weather, but first impressions are all good.

Hope this helps.

Gordon.

Hi Phillip,

Just stumbled on this thread, hopefully you have an answer to the sealing issue now.

Critical will be the problem of movement in the wooden floor, what seals today might probably be an issue later. The Scopedome instruction manual for the base ring quotes something like 1mm out on flatness. Are you sure the wood is stable enough for this?  Anyway, hopefully it will be OK.

One other thing from the picture, I can see the motor mount for the dome. The gear that meshes with the cog ring is pretty thick and I notice the power cables looks to be pretty close. Please make sure the wires are nowhere near the cog ring, as you REALLY don't want them to rub.

I recently built a 3m Scopedome, so if you want to chat, feel free to PM me.

Gordon.

OK. Promise this will be the last off-topic posting.

The weather is so bad, I have made no progress on first light. It's either clouds and rain, or I am committed to be somewhere else. All my own fault, of course, building the obby was sure to attract lots of bad weather.

Anyway, I spoke to the mayor and she granted me a buring permit (not for the obby, but the cuttings from a 73m long laurel hedge. The permit is pretty strict for setting fire to fields, but a bonfire is fine. In fact, so long as we burn less than 5m3 at a time, we don't actually need a permit ! We plan to take as much of the wood as we can to be "recycled" and only burn the small branches. Seems like a fair compromise.

So the permit of Monday 4th to Friday 8th November and the forecast is for rain the whole week.

Looks like the astronomy curse doesn't simply apply to buying new stuff...

Gordon.

Looks really good.

I guess there is a trailing lead for the mount and dew heater?

Also guess the camera makes the red lighting seem brighter than it is...

Gordon.

Spiders and other assorted creepie crawlies will look for a place to hide. I found them making a home inside the PC before now. I would suggest you take a close look at any vent holes, etc. and make sure nothing can get in.

On my new rig here in France, we have an autumnal invasion of shield bugs. They are pretty large, but will creep into any small crevice for the winter. I even found one had crawled between the fan blades on the camera and was going to call it home for the winter...

Apart from that, I see no reason not to leave the PC switched on, the mount will continue to track until homed. I have never left a mount on all the time but would guess once in the home position would stop tracking.

For sure, the less you need to turn on, the quicker you will be up and running.

Gordon.

3 hours ago, Rusted said:

The rule around here is no fire nearer than 30 meters from any structure, hedge or field.
Double that for windy weather and only in the depths of winter.
Contractors trim the field hedges in autumn and bung them through a big, noisy shredder.
It makes wood chippings for covering gardens, firing power stations and protecting pop concert fields.
Any local tool hire companies who might have a shedder? You could hold your own pop concert.

We are still thinking abut the idea of buring the stuff, maybe we will have a go and see how it goes. In the meantime, each trip to town doubles up with a trip to dump another trailer load.

There are hire companies, about 30 minutes away, where I could hire a big chipper. Some of the branches are up to 15cm thick, so we would need to separate them. But I really do not have much use for the chippings and as the Laurel is posionous, I think I would rather just get it off site and let someone else worry about it.

Pop concert ??? I would empty the grounds in 30 seconds if I started to sing... haha.

Gordon.

42 minutes ago, Marvin Jenkins said:

You know you take it to the dechetterie and they take it somewhere else and burn it on a bonfire, cut out the middle man. Less carbon footprint too.😁 saves driving that AMG all over France

I assumed they would chip it and turn it into compost or something.

It will be a horrendous bonfire. Probably need to do it over a few days...

Gordon.

51 minutes ago, fozzybear said:

Gordon,

Where I live in November no problem for fires just not in summertime local marie as you state gives permission 

l'arrêté préfectoral

I think this area is around the middle of November before they issue permits. There are still some corn fields to harvest and I suppose nothing will be allowed until they crop the last one. As it is for animal feed, they leave it until the stalks have basically died off.

I almost got a permit earlier in the year, but the cutoff was the next day and I was not ready to burn the cuttings. That lot was OK, I got a neighbour to help me get rid of it. But this lot is way too much. Also a lot to burn and the best place is only around 15m from the domes...

We make a run to the dechetterie in town, then go to the shops, so it is not really a big deal....

Gordon.

14 minutes ago, fozzybear said:

You could just pile up the cuttings for Nov 5th and a wopping bonfire saves on the trips to the dechetterie? Could be a bit smokey

Crikey !! We would see it from space I think !!

Not sure if the mayor would approve either... Being in the countryside, I need a permit to start a fire.

Gordon.

Just now, Marvin Jenkins said:

Gutted, can’t see the fencing.😂

Fencing does look good. I went to one of the local hardware stores and found all the electric fence stuff. Would not take too much effort to include it. Confident it will help to keep the local wildlife away...

With the bad weather, Mrs. Bukko has me cutting back the Laurel hedge down the side of the observatory field. It's around 70m long. With the new Stihl chainsaw, it cuts it so well, but the problem is getting rid of the cuttings. I have done 6 runs to the skips so far and hardly made a dent in it. Probably 20 more trips before I am finished. My reversing with the trailer is getting better too !!

Who says you can't take a Merc offroading??

Gordon.

Time for a little update...

My sons came to visit the other week, complete disaster on the weather front. Rain and clouds most days with very short partial breaks in the cloud, tempting us with half a dozen stars before closing in again.

Uncovered a few minor issues, worked most of them, but little movement forward.

Fighting .Net problems with Windows 10 "Professional" but TheSkyX looks really good. Evenything now working through it, except the dome (.Net.. arrrgh!!) driver. Still to resonve.

But good news, Google Earth has updated and captured the domes !!

Oh, happy days...

Gordon.

23 hours ago, JG777 said:

The cricket field is ok if Reading still use it and you want  to join, but access to the field is a bit tricky from the road especially with a lot of gear. When I used it a few years ago, you need to contact someone who then contacts the owner and then they have to text you back, and then Reading would advertise that on the FB page, so anyone whom you don't know might turn up. They seemed to want to turn any visit into a group visit. I did manage to secure independent permission for use but never bothered in the end.

As mentioned Swallowfield and the area between Reading and Basingstoke might turn something up, skies are a bit darker there although at the Reading end of things the LEDs on the M4 have made things worse. One of our dark sites are there, permission from an angling club I use with a gated car park, but I am only visual so the occasional angler turning up with lights on is not really an issue, think it might be for imaging.

I recommend looking at the OS Explorer maps for the areas and going out in the daytime to identify safe places, see them at night as well then draft a letter up asking for permission for anything that is suitable. Car parks, farms, small holdings, allotments, church car parks, etc. Its worth the effort to find somewhere. 

Many thanks for the extra info - I am STILL trying to get some telephone time with my son, hopefully later.

I will pass this on also and hopefully it will help. He does not have too much gear, an 80mm frac on an iOptron CEM25p when it arrives. Easily transportable.

Gordon.

32 minutes ago, skybadger said:

Reading astro go (or used to go) to the cricket field at Farley Hill which is moderately dark as their dark site. 

Dinton pastures might now be that place though. 

 

Many thanks - I will pass the leads on when I finally catch up with my son...

Gordon.

49 minutes ago, Laurin Dave said:

Hi  Gordon

He might also try the Newbury society, "George 47" on here is their chair..   the next Basingstoke Astro meeting is November 14th 7:00pm at Cliddesden, its a practical meeting so it'll be cloudy!  Your son would be more than welcome to come along and meet us.  Not sure I'd be too keen on being alone in some remote car park in the wee hours..  

Dave

Thanks Dave,

Hopefully I will get to chat to my son later and see what he plans to do.

I would personally give the societies a chance and see what's going on. I know he likes to just quietly get on with it but I and uneasy about the lone working bit.

Once I talk to him, I will contact George and make the link, if he wants me to.

Gordon.

1 hour ago, Laurin Dave said:

Hi Gordon

I live in Swallowfield (7 miles south of Reading) and image from my back garden observatory, unfortunately I am not familiar with any sites..  its pretty dark (by local standards) around here and in the strip between Basingstoke and Reading … even darker the further west you go.  Is your son a member of Reading Astro group (I'm in the Basingstoke group most of whom image from their homes) maybe they know of some sites, I was a member many years ago and we sometimes went up onto the Ridgeway to observe.

Dave

Hello Dave,

many thanks for the reply.

No, he is not a member of any of the local astro clubs, I did take a look at their respective websites before posting here and they do not seem to have a regular dark site mentioned. I did suggest he should give them a try and for the cost of membership, might save himself a lot of travel. He is thinking about a site half way to Newbury. It looks like a small car park off the beaten track and personally not my first choice to take a load of imaging stuff on his own.

I know from experience, he will stay working through to the early hours so would probably quickly use up any goodwill from any members' garden he managed to secure...

The Ridgeway sounds like somewhere he mentioned to me also.

Ideally, we would have liked to have remote access to my stuff here, but the networking requirement is not playing nice; so, for now, he needs to find an alternative.

Thanks again,

Gordon.