Rusted

With cables and plugs being constantly "updated" it might be safer to dig a tunnel. Then you can crawl [or walk through] and just clip the new Cat 19.9 and USB 23+ cables into trunking on the walls as you go. It makes my tatty old, mains extension cable feel so inadequate. Is it an age thing?

Bright but very cloudy. Another daub in virtual chalk and charcoal. ZWO120MC PST mods to 150/8 + internal DERF. SharpCap RGB24 960x720 + RGSTAX6 + PhotoFiltre. 5% of 1000. Second image 5% of 3000 frames.

Absolutely stunning!

This may explain why using a PST etalon and filter can improve the performance of my 150/8 when used for H-a. The focal ratio is altered to f/10 and the aperture reduced to an equivalent 120mm. I find my PST Etalon group is weakly negative like a Barlow. The very narrow filtration passband will obviously reduce CA but will not alter the spherical figure of the lens. Ironically, I never found any improvement from simply stopping down the 150/8 using a ring baffle in front of the objective. Always preferring the view with the full aperture in white light. The same holds true for the 180/12 R35 iStar. Adding an aperture stop never seems to provide the supposedly "magical" benefits of a "slower" lens when it really ought to. D&G Optical claimed there was little difference to choose between their 6" f/12 and their f/15 and it was more a matter of taste. No doubt the elderly observer, with natural yellowing of their eye lenses with age, would agree. Saving 18" on tube length has greater advantages. A "Fringe Killer" filter provided obvious benefits with my 150/8 [and was always fitted for white light] but not with the 180/12 R35. I have never tried the green "Solar Continuum" on the 150/8 but use one routinely on the 180/12 R35 for both solar and lunar and for both visual and imaging. Unfortunately iStar lenses are now becoming very expensive in comparison with complete Chinese ED scopes. I would not have had much change from £900 for a 150/10 achromat in its cell via the UK dealer for my H-a plans. Perhaps I should have tried the 180/12 for H-alpha? A Chromacorr, with my name on it, has never crossed my path.

My 180/12 R35 iStar shows very little false colour to my eyes. The claimed R35% reduction in ca offers an f/16 equivalent correction in an f/12 tube length. That's a 28" reduction in moment arm. iStar offer a range of faster, R% objectives. My 7" happily holds 200x, or more, on the moon and sun. While my 6" f/8 Celestron would never allow more than 120x even with a Fringe Killer. I spent years blaming the seeing conditions. The 6" now works better as an H-alpha telescope at 120mm/10 equivalent rather than white light.

Future archaeologists will probably struggle to recognise a ring of strip lights as a representation of a gaseous planet. I know I do. Denmark has far more realistic scale models of the Solar System at Lemvig, amongst others. Albeit on a slightly smaller scale. At least, the carefully sculptured metal spheres should last as long as the solar system. If they can be found under the rising seas! Lemvig is only 4m above the present sea level! https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwiDuYSmsMXiAhUCb1AKHYo7C1IQFjAAegQIBRAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.planetstien.dk%2FPlanetarypath.htm&usg=AOvVaw2TVoQNgrsU6D2pZBn50z6H

The black "octopus" is actually a soap dish to go on the vertical shower rail. I'll go with a Mak, too.

Excellent images! As always.

Well, at least you didn't have to build upwards just to be able to see the sky.

Why not roll off onto the lawn parallel with the fence? I'd also suggest enough clearance behind the obs. to reach in for litter, maintenance or painting. Or, make it so close it won't matter but without using the fence for structure. Putting the obs. so near to the gap beside your house will force some odd manoeuvres with lengthy or bulky objects. Nor do you want to build so high that you block the light to your neighbour's window. If they normally have that window open they will be able to hear every sound you make or your mounting slewing. Or vice versa! External visibility will be high in your present situation through the diagonal gap to more distant homes. If south is across the rear face of your home then the further away you move the more western sky you will reach. I would be moving further down the garden for several of the reasons I have mentioned.

Wonderfully well! Almost effortless because no wet lifting is involved. Improved mix from the rake tines reaching right to the bottom of the dry, then wet ingredients. After half a century of using a spade and making a mess on the ground I felt liberated. The mix is always contained and ready to be transported around the site without further lifting, loading or mess. No more dragging heavy and sloppy buckets around and then having several items to clean including your clothes and Wellies. No more judging how much water to add into a fragile crater ready to burst its contents across the patio or lawn. Add a little water at a time and just keep on mixing. Ideal for post holes. I am only charging £100 for a single [one day only] license for private users of the idea.

A wheelbarrow and a rake never did me any harm when it came to mixing concrete.

Lottery funding?

I am not seeing a picture of this miscreant set-up. What about a hex-socket head bolt/screw? [Allen screw in UK colloquial.] One can obtain socket head grub screws too.

That which one would otherwise avoid were one not recompensed in kind, in keep, in rations or in tokens to the local, monopoly food store.

👀

Least of all those in the colonies.

Looks like an 0-6-2. I was wondering where the boiler and firebox had gone.

I still think water will run under [or be wind driven under] the weather board unless you lift it on a batten and provide a [nasal] drip. A flashing over the weather board from under the cladding would be better but expensive in ally profiles.

Difficult to see from the drawing, but shouldn't the moisture barrier at the foot of the wall rise up inside it? Just to ensure rain running down the outside face of the wall is eventually ejected. You would seem to allow such moisture access to the underfloor from below the weather board level. I'm just going by the weight of the lines in your drawing.

G-cramps, C-clamps and F-clamps have a nasty habit of working loose in the wind. I had a 6" iron clamp drop from the top of the dome where it was temporarily holding the shutters together. Luckily it only hit me on the knee rather than damaging anything valuable or making a big dent in the larch floor. ?

An opening at the top alone will not circulate enough air. Think of a holding bottle under water. The air can't get out. Shading southern aspects works. My open shutters block the sun from reaching the dome panels they cover. The covered panels are at the dome's ambient air temperature. Those still exposed to the sun are at 90-95F or more. So I've been thinking about louvres. Or even adding a complete stand-off surface with a gap for air movement. The latter would need netting all around to stop vermin, birds and insects taking up residence. Then there's reflective foil but it needs an air gap on its outer surface to work properly. That air gap can be inside the closed wall. Battens can move the outer surface away from the foil. Shade plants for a southern wall would need to be dense evergreens. Fastigiate conifers in pots? A sack truck could move them as needed. If stuff was meant to be thrown away you wouldn't want it in the first place.

Tracks on wheels makes more sense than wheels in tracks. Upward facing channels are what is known as "gutters" in the trade.

I use a padlock and hasp with concealed coach bolts too. Large metal plates hidden out of sight inside the door spread the bolt loads over a huge area. It should really spoil the day of any crowbar swinging low life who fancies a free fix. Never leave exposed heads on hinges or hasps or any other vulnerabilities! The cheapest hasps can be levered off with an electrical screwdriver! The best hasps actually hide the padlock inside a little box to protect against bolt cutters. I needed bolt cutters to trim my sturdy veranda fencing and found them as cheap as 20 quid. Though I went for better quality in a slightly larger size to make [my] life much easier.

Interesting idea, as imaging wallpaper, but Is that really the best option for an observatory even with PIP? At such a short viewing distance your eyes would be having to constantly refocus from centre to edge. A pair of monitors [or even three?] with some dihedral would be easier to set up and use. Better than a curved monitor with all the problems of surface reflections and multitasking. Even with my modest 34x52cm monitor it sometimes feels as if I am having to cover a lot of acreage with my eyes. Particularly when typing text. The tendency is to want to move backwards away from the screen viewed at 110cm. This is probably why I use a lot of newlines and shorten my sentences to avoid 18" long lines of text.