Rusted

Tomato green? It looks as if it belongs there. I wasn't allowed a white dome either. But it's good to be green.

Let's keep trying before it finally comes to dismantling the whole lot with all the attendant risks to life, limb and expensive toys. What exactly happens when you turn that socket head screw? Does the mounting move any further on in the desired direction? It sounds as if it geared to the base somehow if it provides slow motion in azimuth. You only need a smidgen more movement in the right direction.

I searched for ages about the CGE and found reference to a "socket head screw" in, or projecting from, the mounting top plate. Nothing visible on "yours?" Later examples seem to have a worm, or threaded rod, fine adjustment in azimuth. A costly design solution unless you need it every night. Owners complained [in another place] about the PA altitude adjustment being heavy but found the azimuth easy. Presumably they could just rotate the tripod if they hit the end stops. It really makes you wonder if the mounting was set up wrongly in the first place. With no further azimuth adjustment possible because of the solid pier. Even so I find it hard to believe they'd make a mounting which couldn't be rotated 360°. Leaving the big locking knobs only to provide security for the final adjustment. If you are a member of "The Other Place" you could start a topic on "CGE azimuth adjustment." They seem to have have more Celestron CGE owners than over here. With several threads cropping up. Unfortunately the countless examples of CGE user manuals online are all but identical! None of them helped and the relevant drawing 2-10 [?] showed only the PA altitude adjustment. As a final resort I'd be tempted to remove both, big black knobs and rotate the whole mounting to where it needs to be. Then see how if it wobbles or moves around without the locking knobs. You might even find additional screw holes hidden in the lower plate but I doubt it. Most users would never need them nor find them. There might well be enough weight to hold it down securely on a fixed pier but you really don't want it "swinging around." Don't lose the knobs! Such facilities are notorious for "helpful people" losing stuff over the years. They could be an American thread form and irreplaceable locally except at highly inflated astro spares prices.

Brilliant suggestion! I think I can see that central screw through the hole in the base. The much longer one! Good luck reaching that with a spanner! Is there a nut inside the PA support fork? We don't have a picture of that area of the mounting. I think the large, lower, galvanized screws are just levelling jacks. Do a search for CGE azimuth adjuster for further clues.

I enjoyed the plot development but I wanted to see more flesh on the characters.

So? The conservatory's days are numbered then?

How true. Absolutely no skill required. Well done Charl! BTW: Do you want your cloud back gain now I've finished with it?

Wow! Talk about maximising your potential space! Can you play the accordion?

The 14" and the mounting will each be very hefty lumps for a single person to manage alone. Don't even try unless you are comfortable with such heavy lifts! Besides, it shouldn't be necessary just to turn the mounting in azimuth. There has to be a trick to it. Where's Peter when you need him?

This is getting more and more confusing. There are no obvious slots for the big screws to move along. Unless the mounting was wrongly installed at first set up it should be easily rotatable in azimuth. What happens if you unscrew the big plastic knob completely? Is there a fresh hole in which it can be re-inserted, further around, if the whole mounting is rotated in azimuth? What I thought to be a plastic angle piece now looks much more like a galvanized nut. With another on the opposite side hidden under the same thick ring [or flange.] Are there slots in the surface where these nuts screw down? Some clear pictures taken in daylight without the obscuring text would help.

Yesterday was spent making a 50mm finder into an alignment camera lens for the ZWO. It needed a 1.25" fitting for the camera nose so I turned down a 2-1.25" adapter to make a plug fit in the finder tube. After an hour of early sunshine today I spent the morning dodging thick cloud as I tried to keep the solar disk inside the SharpCap reticule. The adjustments required to the mounting in Azimuth and PA altitude were all small. Too small to spot with the naked eye. I've just done a meridian flip and retired for lunch. More later. The images show the initial but vital camera orientation. Using zoom in SharpCap provided a large, clear, solar image to exactly match the circular SC reticule.

Beware of loosening screws near the base of the pier to avoid toppling the whole lot over! I've just noticed a small thumbscrew to the north east of the pier top by the nearest large screw. What does that do?

Is that clear plastic angular piece in the foreground of the electronics pillar a reference marker? That would suggest the entire pillar can be rotated if something is loosened. Perhaps the large screws?

Given a free-moving dome you only need a small hand crank with an attached pulley fixed to the wall in the nearby warm room. A long piece of harvester twine wrapped around the dome's midriff and twice around the pulley will easily rotate the entire observatory at sidereal.

First wow was looking through a school friend's 6" commercial reflector at the Moon. Seeing a colourful Saturn [briefly] through my first and only aerial telescope. 2m f/l x 60mm aperture spectacle lens with simple lens, 3/4" eyepiece. OTA hung over the washing line post. Seeing hundreds of lines in the solar spectrum with my home made spectroscope. Seeing the sun directly through a Baader Solar foil filter on my 90mm Vixen instead of by projection. Seeing the sun in H-alpha with proms for the first time after waiting 60 years from first reading about it in ATM Vols. 1-3. Capturing minor craters in Plato. Then there's M42 in my 6" f/8 refractor in my dark back garden. Venus and Mercury transits and solar eclipses. Saturn through the 6" looking pixelated on a rare night of perfect seeing. Crepe ring, Cassini and Encke Gap, Polar shading and belts all etched in my memory. Like watching from a spacecraft in orbit. Staying up so long at the telescope that I developed monochrome night vision. Having my own observatory when it rained and I could just close the shutters. Instead of scrambling about like a headless chicken to put everything away.

Seriously? You are very welcome. It just seemed so perfectly apt for your observatory. I think the shape of your Scopedomes makes more sense for a reflector than the Pulsar. While the Pulsar seems more suitable for refractors on tall piers. Without knowing the price differential I'd say the Scopedome looks a far more sophisticated and better developed unit. No doubt that will upset a few Pulsar owners. I was hoping to get a bigger Pulsar but their promised 3.5m was never released. Domes are pricey but the instant access and peace of mind in knowing it will all still be there after a storm is worth every penny. The recent torrential rains is proving a sore trial for my home made dome's seams. Manageable but a bit of a nuisance. Though I still don't need a scope cover. It only "rains" around the edges.

Thank you for your interest. An update: I wasted hours between heavy showers waiting for the sun to appear. Only then did I discover [remember!!] the need for a much shorter focal length with my ZWO120MC-S. The tiny chip in the ZWO 120MC is a powerful magnifying device. Crop factor of 5.6? Which meant I needed a safely filtered finder telescope with a 1.25" eyepiece holder. Of the several finders in my collection none has a standard 1.25" fitting for the camera nose. A 9x50 [possibly Skywatcher] finder provided the best solar disk match for the SharpCap circle and crosshairs reticule. I just need to turn an adaptor for 1.25" fitting on a 2" adapter. The finder tailpiece tube is threaded and undersized for a 2" push fit. The snap I took of the monitor screen shows the solar disk with a 1000mm focal length considerably overlapping the reticule. Ideally, the SharpCap reticule needs a solar disk from a focal length between 150 and 200 in conjunction with the ZWO120. Cameras with larger chips might get away with a longer FL.

WARNING: SAFE SOLAR FILTRATION REQUIRED FOR THIS! [APPROVED SOLAR FILTER FOIL IS CHEAP.] I came across this YT video while searching for daytime, mounting alignment methods. It might be very handy for those without a view of the Pole. My guess is that the method relies on an accurate Solar drive rate. Is this method valid for all users or only solar observers/imagers? How much does the sun wander relative to the background stars? Can the same method be applied to The Moon?

I have a triple pulley block hoist to lift my 7" refractor onto its mounting. Does that count?

Sorry, that should have been 'Erstmonceau with a Peter Sellers French accent.

Agreed! I've just realised that this French "Herstmonceux" and my observatory have something in common... The gravel.

Thanks but I was certain I had the planet central on the camera.

Thanks Dave. My original post was really questioning the sensitivity of the ZWO. I removed the camera and checked that Saturn was lighting up the field of view. I refitted an eyepiece and made Saturn absolutely central. I gave the focuser a gentle push in all directions but still nothing showed on the screens. I used the ultra slow AWR drives to wander around the immediate area. The camera was perfectly focused on the Moon and hard up against the eyepiece socket stop. With a 2160mm focal length it should have been clearly visible in size. I engaged LX in SharpCap and found several bright blue pixels and eventually a completely spotty screen. The spots weren't stars. They were fixed and only moved with the camera. Not with the telescope. Presumably just noise? It was completely baffling at the time. I had captured videos of Jupiter at a similar low altitude not long ago. Jupiter wasn't bright but it was clearly visible on the screens. Saturn should have been similar. The Goto slew from the nearby Moon had placed Saturn dead central in the eyepiece. Just for a change. After messing about for half an hour I imagined it must be operator error. Or I had cooked the ZWO on the sun. That couldn't have been true because I had no problem capturing the low, half Moon just before.

Hi there, Should I be able to see Saturn on my laptop or computer monitor when I'm using a 7" f/12 refractor with a ZWO120MC USB3 and SharpCap? No filters. I centred visually with the drives tracking so Saturn was absolutely central and the camera sharply focused on the nearby Moon just moments before. Visually, Saturn looked bright despite its despicably low altitude. Full gain & longest exposure in SharpCap. I was fully expecting to see stars but didn't! Nowt! Still no Saturn! I have really no idea what to expect from the ZWO at lower light levels.

Do they do one in blue? You can't take a red telescope seriously. Hang on though.. I made a red GRP tube for an 8.75" mirror in my youth.