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Blog Comments posted by michaelmorris
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On 08/04/2017 at 04:42, Physopto said:
I think you are like the rest of us and just love new toys ?
You sussed me!
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2 hours ago, Uranium235 said:
Looks like a breeze block, but its not a beauty contest eh
Are you talking about the cooler or my face in my Avatar?
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2 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:
Laptop may be the way to go, but I like the simplicity of not having to use a laptop with my current setup.
That's one of the reasons why using a cheap android tablet running DSLR controller or a cheap windows tablet running APT is so attractive. You can pick up a brand new tablet running a full version of Windows 10 for less than £50. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Zoostorm-SL8-i75-7-5-Tablet/dp/B01FWGRCFW/ref=sr_1_15?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1473766145&sr=1-15
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7 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:
Great, spurs me on! I think I will make mine we a removable back so I can see the screen for focusing etc.
There might be two easier options for focusing.
- If you have an Android phone or tablet that supports the 'USB Host' protocol, you could plug in an OTG cable to the camera and view the liveview screen or test shots on your phone/tablet using the excellent 'DSLR Controller' app.
- Connect your camera to a PC laptop/tablet and use APT or Backyard EOS to view the liveview screen or test shots.
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6 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:
How much does it weigh?
Are you sitting down? Okay, good ...
The empty cooler box weighs a whopping 919 grams. To make matter worse, most of the mass is on one side!
To put this perspective, the camera body and focal reducer together weigh just 755 grams, so using a cooler box will over double the loading on your focuser.
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Well, the DSLR cooler is now (hopefully) complete.
The 2 metres of cabling connecting the project box containing the electrical bits from the original fridge (the power box) has been connected up to the wiring from the Peltier cooler and the two fans in a small project box ‘Araldited’ to the rear of the cooler and a small digital thermometer velcoed to the top of this box. The temperature probe for this thermometer has been glued on to the inside of the cooler.
The USB cable and power cable from the camera pass through a thin slot at the top of the case. I wedge a small piece of foam in here after these cables are in place to provide a reasonable thermal seal.
The lid of the cooler and the cooler itself have been painted with blackboard paint.
I carried out a 3 hour long test of the cooling performance of the cooler, the results of which can be found at
Overall, I’m pleased with the project and plan to test out how well it actually works on deep sky imaging in the next few weeks.
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Here are the pictures of the original electrics from the fridge all mounted in a project box. Unlike Ade Swash's very neat mounting of these components ( http://www.swashastro.co.uk/peltier_cooler_box.html ), I chose the simple, but far less elegant solution of mounting the switches and power inputs en masse. It may not be pretty,but it seems to work.
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The build is coming along rather slowly due to work and other commitments.
The cooling assembly is now installed with the original pettier cooler and associated heat sink on the outside of the aluminium box and the new heatsink and fan on the inside. The two are clamped with two bolts running through two holes drilled in the outer heat sink and through the aluminium box and fins removed from the inner heat sink. Each hole is lined with a whittled down rawl plug to try to thermally isolate the bolts from the outer heatsink. The gap between the part of the outer heat sink not in contact with the peltier and the aluminium box is filled with some thin sheets of neoprene rubber left over form another project. This is then all sealed in with some liquid gasket left over from another DIY astro project.
I've wired it all up to the circuitry taken out of the fridge and it all seems to work okay. (Phew). I've put the circuitry from the fridge into a plastic project box from Maplin (pictures to follow) and bought a replacement 12v lead for the fridge (missing from the original fridge I liberated from the tip).
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I've just been down to Jewsons and had a look at some some 25mm polyisocyanate-based wall insulation. It looks good, but it's only available in expensive 8' x 4' sheets, so I'm going to plan B - polystyrene
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I am minded to try to get hold of some 25mm polyisocyanate-based wall insulation (Kingspan or Celotex). It should be almost as light as polystyrene, but much stronger.
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13 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:
I was thinking of going completely the other way and making a box out of polystrene.
The aluminium case helps transfer the cold evenly around (and thus in to) the camera. This case will then be clad in insulation.
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Further update with progess.
I've finished the basic cooler box made out of 1.5mm thick aluminium sheets folded and bolted together to the same design used by Gary Honis.
http://dslrmodifications.com/rebelmod450d16c.html
I slightly mis-measured (1 mm) and ended up having to file down the edges of the interior heat sink (Doh!)
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Hi Mountain Skies
Your blog is an interesting personal point of view on starting out in astronomy and I think you make some useful points. Personally I don't agree with you regarding getting a cheap refractor as a good first scope. A nice little Newtonian on a decent tracking mount (EQ5 for instance) or on a Dobsonian mount would be my preference.
Regarding your comment "The biggest problem you hear in astronomy is that someone got a big 1000 dollar telescope and hated it and stuck it back in his/her closet." Whilst people having "all the gear and no idea" can be an issue, from my experience, a MUCH more common problem is people getting a really cheap scope (with a shoddy mount), and this putting them off the hobby.
Members of SGL have between them thousands of years of experience of many aspects of amateur astronomy. Quite a number of members are also professional astronomers. The strength of the forum is that there is a vast range of experience within the membership, yet I somewhat doubt any member would ever claim to be the' ultimate' authority on any single aspect of the hobby. Perhaps billing your blog as an 'Ultimate guide' is over-egging it. Might your blog be more appropriately entitled - 'Starting out in astronomy - a personal view'?
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18 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:
I find it hard to use an eyepiece for more than about five minutes. Although I can enjoy the views, without imaging it just wasn't be worth me setting up a scope because after 15-20 minutes I felt stiff, uncomfortable and frustrated.
Have you tried using an observing stool? Sitting down whilst observing can completely transform the experience.
http://www.firstlightoptics.com/misc/mey-observing-chair.html
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Pictures of new set up.
in Blogstronomy
A blog by michaelmorris in General
Posted
First off is learning how to use it all!
The whole idea is that the new set up is multi-purpose.
The 80 mm ED refractor is my main DSO imaging scope. This will be used mainly for narrowband imaging (with some LRGB as well) of DSOs with the new CCD camera and filter wheel.
The 66 mm ED refractor serves as a guide scope for DSO imaging, but can be used for wider field DSO imaging with the new CCD camera and filter wheel + a focal reducer as well. In this configuration I could also add my astro-modified DSLR to the 80ED and add a finder guider and do simultaneous colour imaging and narrow band imaging of the same target. The 66 mm can also be used for Ha viewing/imaging of the Sun with my Coronado 0.7Ao etalon with adaptor + BF10 blocking filter.
The C 9.25 is my main visual scope, used mostly for double star observing. It also doubles up as my main lunar and planetary scope for both visual observing and imaging. Thirdly, I plan to try out DSO imaging of distant galaxies and planetary nebulae through it with the new CCD camera and filter wheel + an off axis guider.
Of course, how on earth I'm going to fit all this stuff in to my life is another matter!