Rusted

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.

A "serious" telescope doesn't wobble and it can find things and track them all on its own. After nearly 60 years I'm still looking for one. A Dobsonian comes close on solidity. We'll have to wait for an organic, quantum, AI superdoobrywotsit to steer it straight to the required spot.

"Rabid star hopping" sounds like a hobby for our younger members. I prefer to keep both feet firmly on the ground. Except when I'm running away from marauding hedgehogs! Which is why I took up "solar." To avoid the constant fear and alarm.

Run, do not walk, away from H-a imaging. Rage, rage, against the dying of the visual light. Imaging only proves you were there for the TV programme. But [actually] seeing is believing. I bought pairs of 40mm eyepieces for low powers because I just could not believe Peter's claims about high powers and wide fields were correct. So far I have never used them. His method of adding a 2x Barlow to a binoviewer nose is pure magic! You can have high powers and still have a full disk. Or gob smacking views where you hover over the Sun's surface. Though you do need a bit of aperture to supply enough light for the really big stuff. 200x? Suits you sir!

A couple of people I knew died recently. One left a huge collection of interesting but distinctly, narrow interest, antique items. Which were duly auctioned and bought by a further generation of obsessive collectors. Fortunately the number and rarity of so many items was worthy of two days of specialist auctions. The other wrote a large and heavily illustrated book on the abstruse subject related to the physical materials of the other's collection. The number of copies sold and the likely number of a new reprint are [unsurprisingly] very small indeed but much admired by collectors. Their names will both be remembered for at least another generation of the few bods who find the subject matter interesting. Both contributed, in their own way, to the sum of human knowledge. Albeit within a very narrow field of special interest. Several related forums have risen and fallen again with changing ownership of the forum platforms. There are very few posts or posters. My own blogging has fallen foul of the same problem. Tech empires rise and fall again. Sweeping away familiar names. Conditions change, as does the technology. The ability to post pictures and then videos and their technical quality, improves constantly. What price my own software in BBC basic on floppy disks or cassette tapes? Or VHS videos, music cassettes and 78s? Most vinyl ends up in a charity shop. Where is rests until permanently warped by the cardboard box it came in. Unless something is published and of general interest it is very unlikely to survive a generation change. Interesting collections are converted instantly to "that old junk he used to play about with" once the dearly obsessed moves on and the family are left to bicker over the worthless spoils. Beloved items from a lifetime's obsessive collecting [hoarding] quickly descend to charity shop status. Or worse, a trip to the recycling yard. Or, more often, direct to the tip. Do we owe anything to the next generation unless it has real and lasting value? Our egos might desire immortality but will it survive a house clearance? Burdening the next generation with your "life's work" may not even be a kindness. Does it have real scientific or historical value? Is your "junk" easily recognisable as valuable antiques roadshow fodder which might contribute to the funeral costs? Be honest! Does your family have access to the few other obsessives who share your interest but are scattered behind user names and spread thinly across the Internet? My own "junk" might fetch only a few thousand if only it could be distributed efficiently into the right hands. But most items are large and heavy and very fragile. They are also in completely the wrong place geographically to find a ready audience for any "bargains." My specialist library will never survive my parting. After an accident I stuck Dymo tape labels to my most valuable items as guide to their age and maker's names. But who will ever read them? Do your family a favour and get rid of your stuff before you have your accident, heart attack or stroke.

There were small proms all around the limb but nothing was showing on Gong Ha. I set up anyway and wasted a couple of hours on cloud during the day.

A couple of wisps between 12 and 1pm on the limb.

Looking good and very decent images with both surface and proms simultaneously. Endless practice will further hone your skills. Your skills at ATM and adaptation are a lesson to us all. You might eventually enjoy using an inexpensive Omegon 2" helical focuser. The Omegon has a nice long range of smooth travel. Allowing Barlows to be fitted and removed from the camera and still reach focus. TS do a nice 50mm threaded adapter for the Omegon tail end which can house the ITF and BF5. Followed by a nice, T2 to 1.25 adaptor [again by TS] with a proper compression ring. To safely hold eyepieces, cameras and binoviewers. Good point about daytime astronomy. My wife happily jokes I am going off to work in the observatory with my laptop case in the mornings. Not nearly so forgiving of evening and night time shifts.

I would suggest using PVC pipe as a backing for glued-on abrasive paper but you are using power not manual labour. Are you using a lambswool polishing mop? NW1 sounds ideal but your technique or tools may be the problem. T-Cut used to get a good press in car circles but that was years ago. I rubbed an entire GRP kit car down to the gel coat through multiple layers of paint once but I wasn't looking for a polish. I just used an orbital sander. When polishing metal I used multilayer, cotton disks used on edge like a grinding wheel. These are as old as the hills for power polishing for brass, chrome and metal plating. The power and high speed would stiffen the disks into a solid mass. The curvature would ideally suit your needs used longitudinally. Polish was applied from special wax blocks. But you'd need expert advice on what to use on epoxy resin. One false move and you could be through to the core material.

Thank you both. It was just a fun experiment but I should shall use a lot more processed stills and imppg next time. Better seeing conditions and hours of clear skies would help as well.

Here's one for your amusement: A 4 second video of the changes to a group of proms over a little more than an hour. I have it set to loop on YouTube but you may have to click the image to get it to recycle. Or go to YouTube and right click then choose Loop. A perfectionist would have the images closely matching after processing. I'm afraid I only thought of doing this after the event. Sorry about the 4th wonky image. I must have moved the camera between videos. Probably due to a tight camera cable.

A dome has a lot of surface area. It is also smooth. So rainwater can travel horizontally in a bit of a wind. Perhaps rain could dam up against the shutter upstand if the dome shutters were at right angles to the wind. So I always turn my shutters into the wind. It didn't seem to help to keep the rain out due to a local leak at the seams. Though I felt much safer having the shutters pressed hard against the dome by the gales. Rather than downwind and being sucked right off the dome!

Wrong answer.

Avoid green paint on the dome itself. It soaks up the sunshine and makes the dome very hot. How do I now this? Because I have a green painted dome for camouflage! I have seen 115F on a thermal gun, remote reading, digital thermometer. And that was reading the inside of the plywood dome.