Swoop1

On 29/11/2019 at 17:55, Danjc said:

Imaging only mate, the things you mention all requires research on my behalf but advice is more than welcome. 

My thinking was that if visual, the height of the pier needs to be good for your back and neck. For imaging, the pier height is not as critical for physical comfort.

Wall height, or designing in walls that can be folded down out of the way will be dictated by your surroundings- horizon, light pollution sources etc.

On 23/11/2019 at 14:48, m.tweedy said:

Mine is. Cut from the lower section above the hatch area. It was cleaned up before welding the pipe flanges and fins.

 

Vey nice. What did you use to clean up the tube? Disc wheel grinder?

On 22/11/2019 at 23:34, JamesF said:

More specifically I believe, heating the zinc forces zinc oxide into the air which can cause flu-like symptoms when inhaled.  At high levels I think it can be very unpleasant (even fatal), but any sane person would probably have stopped well before then.  I believe some respirators are suitable if you must do it and working outdoors may also help, but removing the zinc is probably the sensible option.  Or get someone else to do it

There's some specific name for the effects.  Something like "metal vapour sickness" perhaps; I can't recall exactly what -- I just remember being told about it when my son and I were being taught to weld.

James

Thanks for this James- I wasn't aware of this risk beforehand.

Will this be for imaging only, visual only or a combination? I ask as it will probably make a difference to your pier height and therfore your scope room wall heights.

30 second exposures with my mobile from my garden would have ended up with a severe LP intrusion. Looks like really nice skies.

An unlocked shed next to your obsy is a good home for a peckish Rotweiller.

Has anyone out there tried this?

I had a thought that I might be able to tap up the local authority for a beyond seviceable use lamp post whch could be cut off and the bottom section used as the basis for a pier? Weld a plate on the bottom and a brake disk onn the top and, if possible, keep the access hatch to tidy away connections etc.

Am I being relaistic or just plain dumb?

Looking at your proposed sites, position two looks favourite- a bit higher and more sheltered.

I think those conifers are still healthy, its just that the lower greenery on yopur side has eiothe been cut away or other vegetation thatw as growing there and stunted growth in that area has been cleared.

I have a conifer right outside my patio doors. When we moved in the bit nearest us was full of ivy. We cleaned out the ivy which left a big bald empty spot. It took about 10 years for the conifer to spread and fill.

I suppose  a lot depends on the slope- what is the difference in ground level between the two opposing sides of the dome?

Three options-

1) Dome on a platform that is fixed at the high point of the slope and the rest is supported by stilts. Place your pier in the optimal position. Once the position is identified, Build the platform around it and park the dome on top. Downside is that the pier could be quite long.

2) Partially dig out the bank and build up the slope using the spoil, perhaps with a retaining wall around the dug out arc. Then assemble the dome on a platform laid on the flattend area.

3) Dig footings in a square/ rectangle depending on what suits your obsy shape, build a brick/ block box that overcomes the slope, pier in the middle, concrete joists accross the box and build ypur obsy on top.

Whatever you decide to do, good luck and I'm excited to see your progress.

Good luck!

A bit of anecdata for you. When I was a police officer (26 1/2 yrs served finishing mid 2014) I attended more dwelling burglaries that were commited during daylight hours than the hours of darkness/ overnight.

There has been a relativiely recent increase in overnight burglaries by thieving oiks looking foirkeys to high power vehicles. Security lighting or street ligthing had little effect in curtailing their activity.

Most overnight burglary was commercial.

Very nice images and video/ animation. Congratulations.

Done. Good luck.

9 pane mosaic taken on Sony a6300 through C6 plus cheapo X2 Barlow. AZ4 mount. Stitched in ICE and partially 'despotted' to get rid of some artifacts. Those that are left are because my despotting tool is big and I don't want to obliterate detail. All 1/200 sec at ISO 2000.

Lovely images. Thanks for sharing.

My image doesn't do justice to the visual impression i got looking through the EP a few minute before taking the image.

It really impresses on me the scale of the Solar System. That blemish a short way inside the limb at about 9 o'clock is a whole planet. A small one but a whole planet all the same.

Just imagine the view from the surface. Wow.

Sony a6300 prime focus on Celestron C6/ At/Az 4 through a Solar Continuum filter. 14:19UTC 1/8th sec ISO100

Mercury Transit- Putting the Part in Partial.

I am about to load up the car and take a short trip out to meet some mates. Partial cloud (scudding along quite quickly) so, you never know!

I recently used flashing tape to seal a leaky flat roof. To get it to adhere to a rendered wall I used this bitumen primer- https://www.diy.com/departments/roof-pro-universal-bitumen-primer-0-75l/1932720_BQ.prd

It is as thin as light oil when fresh and dried very quickly. The flashing has adhered exceptionally well, even on dry, somewhat powdery painted render. I used an electric paint stripper gun to heat the flashing to soften the sticky side and then used a wallpaper edge roller to really compress the seal.

You couold chance your arm and ask for another £250. You are worth it after all.

I'll get my coat.

Perhaps we should petition FLO to source 'branded' bump caps?

"Knock your noggin on an EQ8!"

"I've mussed my mullet on a Messu"

I like that. Well done

23 hours ago, JamesF said:

It's quite simple (actually it isn't :), but it sounds complicated.

Let's say you're running some Windows imaging application that uses ASCOM to control the hardware.  No-one ever really thinks about how the imaging application interacts with ASCOM, but you might as well say that imaging pixies take ASCOM instructions from the imaging software and deliver them to the ASCOM software and it does what's required with the hardware, giving the results back to the pixies who take them back to the imaging system.

In Darren's setup, the imaging pixies speak a different language: INDI rather than ASCOM.  KStars (and Ekos, which is an extension built into KStars) talk to the INDI pixies, but in his case they don't go to the INDI software directly.  They take the instructions to their mates the network pixies who run down the wires to the RPi and deliver it to another set of INDI-speaking pixies there, who do give the instructions to the INDI software and carry the results back in the reverse direction with the help of the network pixies.

I have of course left out the details of the USB pixies that the ASCOM and INDI software uses to carry the instructions to the hardware, but that's probably not important in this instance.

All clear now?

James

Mi brane jus esploded.

3 hours ago, dazza1639 said:

My mount is connected to the USB 3 hub using a USB to serial cable. The hub is connected to the RPi which is running the StellarMate OS. KStars automatically starts on the RPi when it boots, but it doesn’t need to be running. KStars on the Windows PC is just running as a client, Ekos connects to the RPi over WiFi. The RPi runs an INDI server that connects to all of the equipment. KStars/Ekos running on the Windows PC just sends commands to the remote INDI server, so no Ascom or drivers needed on the PC as the RPi talks to the equipment. It was really easy to setup. I hope that makes sense.

 

Darren

I have just read this post and understood USB and WiFi.

The rest appears to be in your avatars native tongue?