r3i

On 04/06/2021 at 13:51, nightster said:

Your design shows caster wheels. I recommend V groove metal wheels with inverted Angle Iron steel drilled and deck screwed to wall headers as the track. Friend of mine used C channel and synthetic caster wheels and the channel would cut into the wheels after a year of settlement around structure and made the roof very difficult to move. Suggest putting wheels on bolts as axels with some amount of play between the hubs and the wood that they are attached to to allow them to float left or right as the roof moves. Also use wheels with roller or pin bearings to reduce friction.

I used castor wheels and a C channel on my build and 8 years later it's still working well, apart from the channel getting clogged with ice on those thankfully rare occasions when we get heavy snow.

Having said all that, if I was to build another observatory in the future, I would go for the V groove metal wheels as by all accounts, they give a smoother running action.  Probably more pricey though than casters.

14 hours ago, ScouseSpaceCadet said:

Besides solar system objects, the comparatively narrow field of view and long focal length combined with decent aperture should be great for doubles, globulars and planetary nebula.

Install an app like Stellarium or Sky Safari and see what objects of those types are up at the times you will be observing.

Start with the 23mm and swap to the 10mm once you find the targets. Some will benefit from the higher mag. Others less so.

Put the 4mm away in a drawer.

 

Good suggestions here. In addition to solar system objects,  I've particularly enjoyed views of double stars, globular clusters and some other tight clusters through the 180.  Galaxies didn't seem to view that well for me.

Sorry to hear about this but glad the damage was minimal and nobody got hurt.

Did you have any method of keeping the roof locked down?  I've done a belts and braces approach on my roof as we often get high winds:

• Turnbuckles that clamp the roof to the observatory walls (a bit like Nigella's approach)
• A 'captive mechanism' that provides an additional protection
• Finally, when it gets really windy, I employ ratchet straps over the top of the roof

Hope you get up and running again soon.

Great images.  We installed our first Solarcan on the 21st December.  Looking forward to the Summer Solstice to see the results.

12 hours ago, Jiggy 67 said:

Telegizmos 365 covers are designed to protect from rain etc......and sun, they have an inner layer to protect from sun

+1 for Telegizmo.  I used to use one to cover my stuff outside before I built my observatory.

Hi Asim,

If you're using EQMOD then it's easy to define custom park positions.  See this link: 

I'm not sure what is possible with a SynScan handset as I've never used my NEQ6 with anything other than EQMOD.

Edit: Jiggy's post above answers the SynScan solution.

+1 for Superlube.

You can get them from Pietro Astro here, though it looks like they are currently out of stock:

https://www.pierro-astro.com/materiel-astronomique/montures/kits-de-modification/capot-de-vis-sans-fin-pour-eq6_detail

Very nicely done, you should be well pleased with that.

AstroPlanner is worth a look.  https://www.astroplanner.net/

If the Wi-Fi signal from the house to the observatory is not going to be strong enough, how about using PowerLine adapters to carry the data communications using the mains cable as a carrier?  This means you'll just have the one cable between the observatory and the house.  I've been using Powerline for a good few years now and it has been very reliable.

On 17/10/2019 at 09:46, johninderby said:

I much prefer seeing the latest post in a thread. So annoying to have to wade through a load of posts from the beginning. of a thread. Easy enough to click on the left arrow and go to the beginning if that’s what you want.

John, you can go directly to the latest post by clicking on the part where it states when the last post was, e.g. Click on the bit that shows "3 hours ago".

Edit: clicking on where it states the number of replies looks to do the same thing.

I use a combination of rubber strap wrenches and filter wrenches.  I got the filter wrenches from ScopeStuff in the USA: http://www.scopestuff.com/ss_fwrn.htm

Will have to try the trainers technique sometime.

On 04/10/2019 at 11:06, kirkster501 said:

Yeah I find that too.  You can't CTl-Z and go back.....

Hi Steve,

That's odd.  When I do Ctrl-z, I get a layer called 'After Action', above the background layer, which can be deleted and the background layer contains the image pior to the action.  That's with version CS3 mind you.

On 03/10/2019 at 10:16, London_David said:

@r3i maybe that’s the best idea. It will also save me the trouble of carting the fork and tripod a few hundred miles form its current location. I can take the ota for immediate use and deal with the bulk later, and easier re-sell. 
 

Did you have any handles or anything on it? Or was it easy to mount and manipulate once it was deforked? I will have to mount and de mount for each session.

 

 

 

 

If I recall, the scope was quite light and easy to carry. The NEQ6 mount was more of a handful.

I also had an LX90 some years ago that I deforked and mounted onto an EQ6.  I also used a Losmandy plate which I think was made by Farpoint Astro.  The process of deforking went surprisingly easy, as did the refork when I later sold the scope.

16 hours ago, Paul M said:

I had these too but They are all long gone

I loved this book. Wore it out nearly.

Not sure if it's still in the loft or if it's "Moon, Mars & Venus" from the same stable up there.

Completely agree it being an excellent book and I did wear my copy out too.  I bought another copy off eBay a few years ago along with the Moon, Mars & Venus book that you also mentioned.

Like many others I also had the Observer's book (a later edition than the one pictured by Mark, I had the one with purple aurora on the cover), and also had the Ladybird Book of the Night Sky- another classic.

On 26/06/2019 at 12:19, alan potts said:

Lenny all credit for looking but you have asked a question in a thread over 6 years old, I'm not even sure if the poster you are asking of is still doing astronomy, you may well do better to ask the question from scratch.

Alan

It's okay, I'm still alive and kicking.

I didn't use any spacer with the DSI, I just used it without the 1.25" eyepiece adapter and screwed it directly onto the top of the OAG. I did however have a 7.5mm spacer between the back of the OAG and my QHY8L camera.  I've attached a pic showing it connect to the back of Star71. 

Hope this helps.

23 hours ago, Cornelius Varley said:

When the NEQ6 was introduced it featured a new dovetail puck that accepted a Losmandy dovetail and also a short extension to the counterweight bar.

It wasn't that clear cut.  When I ordered mine in 2010 it was still advertised as the EQ6 Pro, but when I received it, it had the NEQ6 badge on it and came with just the Vixen puck and no extension. Shortly after that I think they started shipping with the accessories you mentioned.

17 hours ago, mihaighita said:

Hi Graham,

 

If you have the tilt adaptor from TS for your RC10C you will not be able to reach focus even without any of the spacers. What I did to achieve focus was to move the CCD67 into the focuser tube (I used the RiredM63-M68 to connect to TSFOCR30S and placed the CCD67 in the focuser via the M48 female and added the necessary spacers on the camera side of the RiredM63-M68). 

I hope this will be helping someone with the same problem. 

Mihai

 

I have a similar setup for my 8" RC and it works well.  I have the TS focuser and the M68 to M48 adapter (also from TS).  As you say, the CCD67 screws onto the front of the adapter and then it sits inside the focuser.  I can get focus on my setup with or without the FR in place and do not have to add or remove any extension tubes.  If I recall correctly, the focuser has to be racked in about 4cm when the FR is installed.

At our previous house, I set up a garden pier, and like Kaliska, I had a Telegizmo 365 cover to protect it.  Build details here: http://northernskyobservations.weebly.com/garden-pier.html

Interesting looking product.  Trying to get my head round how it actually works, from the pictures.

This is clearly a common problem - I also get a puddle of standing water on my warm room roof after rainfall.  Mine is due to the plywood covering the warm room being too thin and it has sagged.

Like Chris, the roof is covered in a sheet of MDPM rubber which is keeping the water out and has done for 5 years now.

If I ever have to build another observatory, I'll certainly use rubber sheeting again but not skimp on the thickness of the underlying wood sheeting.

Don't know whether you came across this but there is one CN thread from somebody who owns one:  https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/606306-ioptron-cem-120ec/

On 6/26/2017 at 08:51, ollypenrice said:

It does show every sign of being original. The other end goes directly into the focuser unit and doesn't seem to have been touched. The presence of the extra focuser socket on the tines, and not mentioned in the manual, suggests that they had a problem. Not to worry, it can be fixed one way or another.

 

We discussed this in your other thread on your LX200 and as I said there, if you googled for images of the focuser it becomes clear that the jack on yours is definitely not the original.

It doesn't surprise me that the jack may have been changed.  I used to have an LX90 and added the 1209 focuser (the one you have) as an accessory, but before that I had the 1206 motor focuser which wrapped around normal focusing knob.  The jack on the 1206 became faulty and I had to cut it off and replace it.