Chriske

Today my son Steven and I started restoring my observatory. It hasn't been used for several years. All my observations these last years were done from other locations. Reason for this restoration : my son wants to get started in astronomy. And he want to do it all, observing, taking pictures, even making his own scope. The mirrors we were grinding were on hold for a few months due to Corona. But now we're back in business. Total length of my observatory is about 10m, observatory itself is 5m long and 3.5m wide. The roll-off roof is very easy to handle. All the wood on the left is gone now and will be replaced next week. Also some pruning needs to be done...you surely might have noticed...😁

I know Neal, but doing that, I lose my hobby. Now I'm having fun, making these things at my own pace. You're not the first pointing that out to me btw...😉 Thanks for the kind words btw

You're all welcome to visit our public observatory. Beside the things I showed you during these builds there's lots to see here. We do have a 400mm RC + a few smaller scopes, a planetarium --> room for 40 people in comfortable (rotating) chairs. During shows people can rotate the backs of the chairs backward. Auditorium + 3 different large rooms for the 16 courses that start(each year) mid September. I do the course 'Telescope making advanced'. And together with another Urania member(Michel, that other mission specialist..😁) I started building models like this HST. Last year I printed 4 SaturnV rockets, HST almost finished now. Next we will build two Falcon9 rockets. One version is a 'ready to be launched(with Fairing) version, and the second will be only the first stage that just has landed, well covered in soot of course Meanwhile on one of my printers I'm busy printing all the parts for an even bigger SaturnV rocket. This time it'll be 4.1 meter high. Crawler, Launch-platform, and LUT included. Goal for this SaturnV was open door mid Sept. But due Corona this project is postponed and a new deadline to finish that project is open-door 2021.

This the one Neil...😉

As I said before Neil, That is the only item in this project I did not draw myself. Downloaded it from the net. Don't remember which site, GrabCad or Thingiverse. At the same scale (1:7) these guys are 25.5 cm high. In fact mine should be a bit larger, I'm 1.94m..😁

View from another angle while working on HST today. SaturnV in the right corner is the one I made before, it is 2m high

One of the last things that will be mounted are these three little guys. They are needed as last balance control of HST. Two mission specialist (Michel/Chris) and the third (Marc) is the guy taking care of the finances to build this HST

Another picture taken in the entrance of our planetarium during work today. in the background you see backlit pictures taken by HST. All these pictures are stacked 4 meters high 6 rows side by side. It's really awesome to look at. Our manager is very proud..!

While hanging there still to do these very last items : Frontcover Backcover Pointers Astronauts Wiring

This the last stage... Standing on a scaffolding, HST hanging just temporary, inserting one solar panel, to measure how much we had to shorten the threaded rods on which HST hangs. We don't want the solar panels or antenna hanging to low. One last time we had to remove HST and now it finally hangs about 3 meters high at the entrance of our planetarium. Urania members were rather impressed of it's size and all the details. A few more days to add some smaller parts, solar panels and antennas.

Yep, but before I get into imaging, I need to build that thing first. But most of all start asking questions 'how to' do that imaging correctly. From what I've seen so far here on the forum, there's a long way to go...😳 But I might find a person here on the forum who can tell me a thing or two about it all...😁 In the past, when dinosaurs were still roaming here, I've taken pictures of the night sky using 103aE, 103aF, 103aO developer HC110, or MWP2. I also used TriX, Technical-Pan(Hypered).....aaah those were the days....!! In those days I took pictures of the Moon with a 6x6 camera and made prints 3'x3'(yep foot). In those days you could buy paper on roll 1.27x10m. I still have a few of these roll as matter of fact. There out of date of course.

Busy designing my own type4 version. It'll be a printed version(no slim line..!), I'll be using ball bearings instead of hinges. I'll also replace the point of friction(between the two moving parts) by short linear bearing. Maybe I might use Teflon instead. And last but not least, the driving threaded rod will be self made. Cutting my own thread assures me I have it absolutely regular. Almost all commercially made threaded rods are not.(construction of threaded rods is not what you would call a high precision process...🙄). Point is I'm planning to use that tracker also with long telephoto lenses. So I need it to be very accurate.

Together with Falcon I'd like to build a Starlink satellite to scale. Anybody have a link to more info to these Starlinks. The only info I could find so far is a few drawings. This is how these satellites are stacked in the Fairing during launching. And this is what I made of it, so far. It's an estimate, I need to copy this from drawing in perspective. Details and smaller parts will be added later.

No no not at all, but I use to have a site of my own. I thought you were referring to that one. It's still on line but nobody knows about it anymore. It has not been updated since 2000(or so) due to lack of time.

My site..? how so...?

It is...

Hi, HST almost done now and already planning a new project, again for our local observatory. This time I'm going to build/print a Falcon9, together with a Dragon or Fairy, and most probably a Heavy too. It'll be build at the same scale as the SaturnV that I'm still printing right now. It'll take some time to print all these SaturnV's parts, especially Saturn's LUT, and crawler. That SaturnV I'm printing is at scale 1:33, so Falcon at the same scale will be 'only' 2.1meter high. Because of Falcon's shape there aren't to many parts that needs to be printed. It's in fact nothing more then a long tube with a few smaller parts sticking out of it's hull and also 9 small thrusters/booster. In my scale model that tube at scale 1:33 is only 110mm diameter and 1.6m high. The rest, up to 2.1m, is 'cargo'.

Ahhhh.....Remind me of school a few years ago now. My pupils made Stirling engines back then. One day I'm going to build me another, a bigger one...

The only way I can handle these small drill bits is in my lathe, see higher up(photos). From 0.5mm I can drill with it holding it in my powertool.

I do. 17/100 is 0.17mm I've got a 0.1mm drill bit, see higher up

Possibly, a friend has such a cheapo Chinese clone, and in his case the tail-stock's barrel is not centred with the chuck at all. And there's no way to adjust it.

Here I'm busy drilling with a 0.4mm drill bit.

You don't wont to know how many I broke until now...😱

These very small drill-bits need a Dremel of course. 0.7 and 0.8 are in use right now. Drillbit 0.1mm is not visible because it is right above one of the tape measure's black marking. Getting a bit closer.... Damn...!!! Making this picture I notice 0.2mm is broke.. But 0.1 is still ok. Using these small drillbits you need a Dremel it needs about 35.000 rpm. I made a special tool to hold my Dremel around the tailstock's barrel. Works perfect. Why do I need these small drill bits...? : to make holes for 3D-printing nozzles. The one I use the most is 0.25, 0.3, 0.35 and 0.4mm. But that is for friends. Except for the 0.4mm I never use these small drill bits myself because mostly I use very big nozzles. The biggest I use very often is the 1.5mm. Busy building a bigger printer(on hold right now) to make very large parts using a 2.5(!)mm nozzle. But that's another story.

Some brands here start to sell 1.25x2.5m.