powerlord

yup - less than half price. what's not to like.

leaving this up incase helpful for anyone else with a brain block.. solution - m8 hex coupling nuts. use piece of m8 bar or a nut with top lopped off - thread into m8 hole with hex coupling nut and a half nut. adjust to proper height and adjust hex so flats face az bolts and use half nut to lock. simples. flat face for az bolts to push against, and no need to tap anything or buy any special bolts. 🙂 stu

Hi chaps, I'm setting up 2 piers using the EQ6 adapter plates from JTW Astronomy. However, these have for some reason, for M8 threads for the az post - and therefore I cannot use the ones from the actual EQ6 tripod (m10) Obviously, getting a couple of SS M10 bolts with unthreaded top bits and lopping off the heads is my second option, but if there is a supplier of az bolts with flat sides like the originals, that'd be my preference. And I don't really fancy trying to hand tap out the holes to M10s to fit the EQ6 ones - as I reckon I'd botch that. anyone have any sources ? cheers stu

Good progress this weekend. Slate laminate floor down (commercial grade for wet env, all joints sealed with clicseal), edging done Inc around mounts (not show in pic from this morning), cables all run under floor up mounts, power supply all done and tested, WiFi in, security cameras in, remote control lighting in, and remote control door lock. Reckon I'm ready to fit mounts in tomorrow and have the grand opening by end of week maybe sooner.

Don't use nina, but in asiair the solution is to change the direction of af routine to work out, not in.

Thaanks Olly , I see the small extensions you are talking about. I think I'll leave it for now though. As I said earlier - when I get more data, I'll pull more out of it. For now, I'm happy with it. If I'm going to start again, I'd rather wait to have more data. If I get another 10 hours (IF/WHEN obsy mk2 is complete), then I think it should take that stretch better. Thanks for the tip about starXT. Here though I think it's just that I struggled to blend the very faint bits into the whole - I made a decision on where it 'ends' and as you point out, I made that decision in the wrong place. I think also to extend what you say above, it does make sense sometimes to flip back and forth between the final and the original basic stretch - I think that would have also showed where I'd clipped the blacks down. In my defence though, I really liked that 'blacker than usual' background here from an artistic pov - I think it works and makes it pop - so as soon as I did it I thought it just worked for this image and stopped looking - as Martin says above - it just makes M51 stand out more - alone in space. An overall effect I think that would maybe be lost a bit if I did try to recover everything from the dark ? there's always next time. Tonight it's a clear night, but since it was also the day I decommissioned obsy mk1 - and mk2 isn't ready I'm at a loss to image. So thats no more imaging till I get mk2 up and running - the pressure is on! 🙂 syu

there really isn't chaps - here's the starless one before pulling the levels down. every bit of dust in the tails is in my edit - if it's not visible - it's your monitor profile clipping those blacks I think? as I can see every bit of it in the edit. But if there's some trick I'm not doing - I'm all ears - always learning. stu

It was only 5 hours. I did try Siril's new GHST stuff (thanks to Nico's video), but there was nowt there other than noise. I don't think I've cropped out anything decent. I did pull the background down a bit more than I usually would - but if you zoom in and have a look you'll see it's not flat - noise still there. If I add another 5 hours or so to it, I'll process it again and see if I can eek anything else out it, but for now that's really all there is I reckon. I used masks to bring back the outer dust back in once I pulled out the noise, which is why you are thinking there was more there than there is I think.

yeh I usually crop in, but thought for once I'd leave it for folk to zoom in if they want. obsy is getting there - trying to lay laminate just now, which is somewhat doing my head in.. but getting there: https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/403869-mount-stu-observatory-mkii/?do=findComment&comment=4356255

Not been posting many pics recently due to rubbish weather and the building the mk2 observatory. However got this data a few weeks back with the trusty 200pds and asi2600. To be honest I left processing it for a while because I didn't think it was very good data, but it actually came out decent. I used the new version of Siril to do most of the preprocessing, then into affinity photo, starX, noiseX. About 5 hours of 5 min subs. stu

i did the same with my first OTA - skymax. do be aware though that those wee 28bys do not have a whole lot of torque to them -i ended up putting a step up to drive mine at 9v (from a 3.7v lipo) to get it to work ok. let me rake out thread: ah here it is:

It comes with adhesive. U just peal the backing off. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/363499108389?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=vbkfgwegtda&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=k_pahIebQ6a&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY But there's others that are thicker, etc depending on what u are looking for. The adhesive is very very sticky. Which is both good (it's going nowhere) and bad (no repositioning, a bit of a pain to do on your own tbh- could have done with 2 more hands).

the motors and belts just were not running cleanly. It is annoying and maybe I'll come back to it at some stage but it's taking too much time just now, and I want to get on. It's frustrating that I've can open/close it with one finger, but automating it AND allowing it to natuarly move/wobble like it can manually is easier said than done. I will fit a rain sensor. only then takes me 30 secs to run out and close roof if it alerts me. Plus, I doubt I could autoclose, as the scopes will extend beyond the roof and I wouldn't trust a rain sensor to not get confused with heavy dew. stu

Good progress this morning. Both mounts in, bolted and leveled to within 0.1 of a degree, then decided concrete might not be quite level enough to do a proper solid job with laminate, so used levelling compound.. Should be dry and level to lay floor in a few day. 😁

Sure. If u look on ebay for 3d printer gantries you'll find these: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/225142637842?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=oMMNsPhYR26&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=k_pahIebQ6a&var=524048553870&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY That gets you 4 delron wheels (with bearings). Just take doors off, and replace the plastic mine at the top with the plastic wheel with one of these - use same bolts and spacer. 2 each door. Your door now hangs on two stainless bolts, rolling in the metal rail with delron wheels and bearings rather than a piece of push fit plastic. Stu

looks like the ZWO filter did all right to me! stu

nearly finished the insulation now - just one roof bit left at outside left. A few days ago before I started insulation, as we are getting LOTs of dew in the morning, to have water on the inside of all the steel panels in the morning. When I'd done all the walls, the next morning the walls were warm (compared to the outside) and dry, but the roof still had water on inside. This morning I thought would be interesting - with only one roof panel still to do - I was expecting it still to be wet in the inside -but with the whole of the inside insulated now except that - it's dry as a bone even though outside dripping with water. So it's working even better than I hoped. I'll finish insulation today. The other things the rubber/silver insulation has done are to totally change the 'feel' if the place - by sort of backing all the thin steel panels all rattles have gone when moving roof, etc and the dampening down of sound, etc has just made it feel really solid and quiet inside - it just doesn't feel like a steel shed anymore. It feels more like I'm in the house. Didn't expect that.

None olly. But you've made a bunch of assumptions there. How is 'small degree of contamination' measured. When it it more than this amount? Is there a lower amount for imaging? It wasn't having a go at you, I agree. All I was saying is, it's not an absolute. And frankly, if the op wants to have a go at cleaning, reassembly, re calibration, etc then I think as you just have done - sometimes explaining the pros and cons is a good approach that just a blanket leave it alone. I was certainly petrified of touching the things from reading stuff on here for a while, but when I eventually did it - taking My newts apart, cleaning the mirrors, collimation, etc I realised for me anyway, it was easy peasy. I learned a lot from doing it. I did screw up on the first one though - dropped the secondary on the primary doing lots of damage. Hence above about giving op pros and cons. But now I've done it a few times it's no biggy. Mirrors aren't coated in unicorn tears - I clean perfectly easily with caloclean just like any other optics. But I don't do it every week. Maybe twice a year.

But let's face it.. Taken to extremes.. If the mirror was totally covered with chocolate sauce.. You'd see nothing. So the anal bit of me gets annoyed when people say 'it will not affect the image". Yes it will. What you are really saying is that the degredation will be minimal. However we all go to tremendous extreme lengths to eek out every little bit of info from those photons.. With our cooled cameras, sub mm spacers, etc.. So frankly it's never something I like to hear. Nor, the aversion to cleaning mirrors which is pretty easy. Yes, unless you JUST cleaned it properly, it will have dust on it, made very visible with a torch. You need to learn what that level of dust looks like to ignore it. But as it builds up, there will come a time that it's worth cleaning. For me, that's when I can look at it in daylight in the morning after a session and it looks dirtier than I'd like my car windscreen to be. And the longer you leave it, the more 'baked on' it gets. We talk about dust, but it's also probably evaporated water when it dewed over for example, leaving whatever was in that other than h2o. And rain drops can be particularly particular (sic).

nah not mine - it just does nothing. only reboot sorts it.

Progress this weekend. Centre ridge fitted, roof rollers all fitted, motors fitted with pulleys and free wheels all ready for belts. Controller box fitted. walls insulated. Roof still to do.

It's not resting on the outriggers, it is clamped to the outriggers via opposing bearings. basically, you could lift the shed by the roof with the roof open if it wasn't bolted to the concrete base. Hopefully pics make clear? It's why the outriggers can be really short. I'll leave them just now as it means I can roll roof sections way beyond shed, and don't want to cut em only to find when I finally get piers and mounts in, an extra few inches would have meant more visibility.. But once all that done, chances are they can be reduced to only be extending about 30cm rather than the 60 or so. But on Carole's point, with th concrete base, they are all higher than my head. I'll stick padding on door lintel once all done for sure. Once in, I clear all the beams, helped by the fact my roof mechanism raised the roof an inch. Both sides done now, running smooth. Put sealant rubber between half's, and just working on ridge mechanism now. Got Monday off, so 3 clear days to crack on.. Famous last words.. But maybe I'd I write goals down here the pressure will help make it happen... I wanna finish roof totally (minus automation) tomorrow. Saturday, fitting insulation. Sunday and Monday - floor and piers. 🤞🤞🤞 Meanwhile in the lab, electronics, control buttons, remote, etc are all progressing on the bench so can be developed and tested separately. I've got a 4 button box on a cable which feeds into the esp32. Interrupts on the button inputs trigger functions : Button 1:open/stop/close roof (ie if its moving, a press will stop it for emergencies otherwise one press will open, or if open, close) Button 2: open/close door Button 3: lights on/off Button 4: mount (and asiair, cameras, etc) power on/off And I've got a remote control with 4 buttons does the same thing. Also those 4 functions are APis And setup so I can ask alexa to do em. Here's a question: Air can escape around the roof which is good for letting hot air out in summer, etc. At base of walls just now, there are gaps at bottom of panels. Above base so not a water risk.. More thinking of ants, etc.. One the one hand, could leave and it might aid air circulation, making cool air come in base, out top. On the other hand, sealing all around may keep it less humid, and puts the control on where cooler air comes in to my hands - might later add low level input fan like I did with obsy mk1. Thoughts?

No, they are always crouching down looking at the ground, to check they don't stand in one of skye's poos. 🤣 Believe me the low door height of the shed is far more dangerous.. I've already bashed my head on it 3 times. 🤯