powerlord

Lots of good a device here. I'll tell you what works 100% for me on my 200 and 300, both of which I got dew issues on primary and secondary. 15cm 12v pc fan. Bit of card, wood or correx, duct tape. Make a shroud out of the above to fit on the bottom. Make sure fan is positioned to blow OUT/down. not in to tube. So it is sucking air down through tube. Duct tape it all in place so air tight. The fan should be only touching the shroud, so u don't get vibration issues. I use correx, its easy to make a more domed shroud, to keep fan from touching base. Any time it's out with cover off, fan is on. I've been doing this for a year now with zero due issues since fitting. Stu

yeh - my thoughts too.

well 8 hours of hard graft with 3 of us - and it's done - used everything down to 1/2 a bucket of sand. mount bolts all sunk in covered in bolts and washers, with my templates back on top - leveled with a digital level. then all covered in plastic, 4 duvets and more plastic. fingers crossed in 2-3 days I have a nice solid cake concrete base. didn't feel the cold all day, by feet socket from water - at end of day big toe half way to frostbite I think - but stopped tingling after an hour so reckon it's ok. phew! (to the concrete pour - I'm sure I'd have been fine with 9 toes)

Well tomorrow is the big day... concrete time. I've been a bit worried with the low temperatures, as advice is not to do it below 5C.. and its gonna be -1 over night, start at 0, and only reach 5 around 3pm.. and might go below zero sat night. But after lots and lots of googling and youtubing, and asking questions on builder sites - I think I have a workable plan. Right now, the subbase is under a tarp, with a fan heater on low and will be all night (I'm trying not to think of the electricity...). In the morning I'll fit the DPM sheet, and I'll use warm water to mix the concrete and pour. When we are done, I'm gonna put a few boards over the concrete - above it.. then another temp DPM sheet.. and then cover that with 4 king size duvets purchased from asda*.. then the tarp. That should keep the heat the concrete generates from escaping too much overnight and over the next few days as it sets. Please sacrifice a virgin chicken tonight to bring me good luck. stu *yeh really. A 'frost blanket' for concrete costs 100s of quid as it's reused,etc... 4 king sizes duvets 13.5 tog - 10.50 each. If I can keep em clean, I'll give deposit them in charity clothes recycling.

good job Lee. It's a personal taste thing I suppose, but I find when I'm adding the rgb stars back in, they need a good boost on saturation - in affinity photo I usually max out the saturation with one live adjustment, then add another and push it a bit higher still. Then I use one of @James Ritson s macros to remove the colour halos a bit - and I get much more colourful stars. It's the same process I use, whether I'm adding em back in to an RGB WB pic or a NB one - so have a look at my M45 I posted yesterday and see what you think. I've been working away this week on similar ideas - gathering data on quite a few different targets with L-ultimate, D2 and RGB. It's interesting how the D2 subs look - usually you can't see the oiii as the ha masks it into a white, but with the D2 the subs look quite stunning in themselves don't they - with the red and the cyan blues.

yeh early versions had crappy home/hibernate funtionality which meant the mount would go all over the place. He's fixed that now, so it just expects the mount to be in home position when you power it up. I use it with asiair right enough, but same idea. Now it's fixed, I don't find it matters if I hibernate (aka home aka park) or not.

I can rotate mine in the 3d printed mount. It does mean I have to focus again, as the focus ring will stay in place as connected to asiair, but it's no big deal really. If you use asiair, it shows you framing, and has great new angle adjust feature so you can get framing right in a few minutes.

they will be bolted onto the base with threaded rods, sunk through the concrete into the soil. And then also the base bonded to the concrete. I've been thinking about what I want to do with the floor - to be honest, the two tripods sit on slabs in Obsy mk1 and it's not a problem. Also - it's really all remote - the only time I'm in there is setting up, and for the odd planetary imaging session. So at the mo my thinking is that I'll leave it for 3 months or so anyway for the concrete to push any water out, then probably paint it with garage floor paint. Maybe stick a wee rug in there. Then it's easy to brush out and keep clean. If by then I've noticed massive vibration issues frankly I'd be miffed, but would then think about something on top

Here's one I've been working on this week. 6 hours of 10 min subs, with another hour of 3 min subs for smaller stars. Shot with my Redcat, asi2600 (built in ir/uv filter only) Processed in APP and Affinity Photo. stu

Whacking complete, templates cut and drilled for both piers. Next step, hammering threaded bolts in, then I'll stick some nuts on them to grab the concrete more, and refit template at top concrete level, levelled. That should keep the threaded bolts all parallel through the pour and setting. Pour happening sat. Might have to wait till afternoon as forecast is 1 degree in morning.. 5 midday.

Lovely work. My neighbours house and some woods stop me getting more than 60 mins in a night on the cone. That really is excellent.

3 tons earth dug out, shuttering in and levelled, and 1 ton of subbase mot 1 (rocks) layed. Whew. 🥵 Mixer and whacker arrive tomorrow. Just need to do whacking before weekend, and sinking threaded rods when amazon delivers them. then at weekend concrete!

Well.. Here we go. 40mph winds today, but dry. Here u can see where I've layed out where ill be digging, to the right of mk1 Reusing the turf on the front garden

ah ok - 1 = one shovel load. gotcha. thanks - good advice much appreciated. stu

thanks - but er maybe I'm being thick.. 1:4 is 2:8 .. so what do you mean here ? Also, good idea about water first, but I don't know how much water I'll need. any idea ? as my method was going to be add water until it looks right (I was going to go for a sort of very very heavy porridge) and shuttering down - I was expecting to leave it until totally solid. How can I tell when concrete is 'green' ? I assume this means sold enough to take shuttering down but can still scrape away but not sure I'd be confident in knowing where that point is.. knowing me, I'd be too keen and end up with concrete moving everywhere after taking down shuttering! cheers stu

haha - I'm powered by Irn Bru I reckon. So latest update: Tonight - off down to Essex to pick up my second pier from @Alan White. Got tomorrow off - digging foundations! woohoo...what fun.... and on friday 13th. I look forward to finding an indian burial ground. I also have 2 tons of ballast, 14 bags of cement and 1 ton of sub-base hardcore arriving, along with wood to build the concrete containment box. At this point it is worth mentioning that I have never done anything with concrete ever... plan is to get the digging all done this weekend, along with laying down to ton of subbase. And hopefully build up the concrete containing box, getting it all level and solid. Plan to dig 6" deeper around where the two piers are going to be so concrete is thicker there. Monday, cement mixer and whacker plate arrive for a week, though will be working all week so won't be used till weekend. Monday night - whack that subbase flat though maybe - so it gets a chance to settle a bit, and I can whack it again later. Sat/Sun following week: damp proof membrane, fit threaded rods in for the piers, positioniing with a set of 2 wooden tempates per pier (one at 'tobe' concrete level, and one at top of rods so they are as aligned as possible. triple check my concrete box is level, and then the fun begins with mixing and pouring concrete to the depth of 6" (to top of the wooden box). About half way through pour, Im gonna put a layer of galvanised steel mesh across it all for extra strength, then continue mix and pour. Oh yeh, need to remember and sink a plastic pipe in so I can feed cabling (power, ethernet) in from underground to the side up through to the top corner of concrete base too. Hopefully by end of weekend, I can cover it with a tarp and leave it for a week so go off. Any tips from anyone that has done this before greatfully recieved. I've seen some folk say give the edge of the base a chamfer, but I have no idea how to do that (it's level with the wooden box, and I can't take it off before its set), so I reckon I have to just miss that, and hope internal sealing of the shed base will be sufficient to keep any water pooling on the edge of the base from getting into the shed. I'm doing it all myself until the concrete, when I'm hoping to rope a friend in to help (though this may require radical insentives beyond the so far offered free coffee and business I fear)- if only because I can forsee needing more than 2 hands at some stage in the proceedings, and with around 3 tons of liquid concrete it all feels like it could go south quite quickly if something goes wrong. stu

I tried th discord link, but just get a 'nothing to see here'? Stu

very nice. is the background calibrated ? you say just a simple stretch ? so if not, maybe do that first ? good chance there's more dust in there ?

awesome first pic - you should be proud of that.

Yup go for it. I started with 2 30mm jobs, but now use only 50mm ones (converted sw finders). Much more light ==much easier guiding.

The guns are out tonight. First light with my new D2 filter. 3 hours shooting ic1396 with the d2, l-ultimate and rgb with the redcat and asi2600, and 3 hours with my 80ed shooting the trunk with an l-ultimate for extra detail. At 10 the plan is to move to rosette for first time this season, and first time with 2600s..and try similar thing.

I have lthe shed now - a duramax 8x 8 foot. Bit of an amazon bargain. Was 500, now 330. Its not a Chinese job - it's a proper hot dip galvanised one. So next is digging the foundations, but I'm maybe putting that off a bit... Its hard work and boring.. And instead looking at how I'd automate my roof mechanism.. So here's a wee video. Next week, I'll be ordering a skip for the soil, and digging out.. Garden is on a slope unfortunately - 3.5inover the width of shed, so my plan of a 6" base (2" mot 1, 4" concrete) is not going to be enough, and I'll have to do 8" with 6" concrete. So digging out to a depth of 6.5in top, 3in bottom. Fun.. 😕

got the very same one from xmas (well.. no surprise.. i asked for it) also got a signed copy of Black Holes by Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw 🙂

Im engineering the roof to slit in two along the ridge and roll and rotate off to each side. rough animation of mechanism:

Wide field ahoy! Bought second hand from astronaut and arrived today.