Jannis

The project was put on "pause" for a bit while i was doing a side project - the terrace, including a massive wall. The telescope project should also benefit from it as it will block lights from cars passing by very well. The hexagon frame is starting to take shape! Now the fun part starts - putting together the walls... Since the walls are 80cm wide, the space between an opposite wall is 138.5cm. I cut 2 laths for the top and bottom and connected 2 walls at the time. I then realized I had to take it down from the terrace as it was already very heavy with just 2 walls... I did the same for another 2 walls, and then the 5th wall i had to mount on it's own. Each wall is quite heavy, so holding it in place while inserting the screws wasn't the easiest, but eventually i got it together. It was a little extra work going for a hexagon shape, but i don't regret it. It's very heavy and solid, more space efficient then a square, and it i love the looks! However, i felt the smaller angle irons were not sufficient, and changed them out with larger ones. Now for the moment i was both most looking forward to, and worried about... Would the last wall fit, or had i messed up somewhere...? The last wall was not mounted like the rest as it will function like a door. This construction will be too tall for me to use without something to stand on anyway, and by making it a door i will easily be able to solve that issue, as well as have easier access later on. It fits!! I decided to install 4 hinges due to the heavy weight, as well as a handle and naturally a lock. The lock had to be bent into shape to fit, as i couldn't easily find one designed to fit on a hexagon corner. Now naturally this wouldn't work well at all standing on the ground, and neither was it intended to. So time to lift it up ~20cm as i originally intended and see if the door works and the hinges holds. Perfect! The concrete pier is not yet complete, as it will have to be much taller. I put on another 80cm just to see how it would fit together. Well, i think I'm going to have to work a bit more on that... The height is good though. Considering how tall the pier is going to be, I'm thinking about removing the paper from the lower one and make it thicker first. I'm not sure how well it will turn out if i go for this tall, and leave it this thin - it might not flex much, but I'm still worried about vibrations. Either way, i think it's looking great so far! Don't worry about the laths going everywhere on the top, they are just there to hold everything together solidly for now, they will be removed later so the scope can move around freely in there. The most difficult part still remain though, and i have yet not even decided on having a dome that i flip off, or one that i rotate. If i go for one that rotates with a small opening it means I'll constantly have to go outside and turn it depending on where i point the scope. I could motorize the rotation, but that would require significant more work and higher cost. I was originally thinking about one that i flip off completely, but if i go for that it might get so heavy i need some kind of help with it anyway, maybe by using gas dampers. Another option is where half of the dome flips over the other half. That might be the best and easiest option to both design and use, but I'm not sure if this might complicate things when imaging nearly straight upwards?

Gave it a quick try. Ended up with some huge stars compared to you though...

Awesome! I'm also leaning towards the QHY now. I'll probably get the same setup as you, with 36mm filters. May i ask where did you order the camera and wheel from? I know Bernard sell the camera for a good price, but I can't seem to find the QHY filter wheel at his web page.

I'm in the same situation - i just can't decide. I have (very) high humidity levels and usually things dew up very easily without heating, so because of that i'm thinking about the QHY as it have heated window and sealed sensor room - it's also cheaper (but add the cost of larger filters and we're pretty even?). I worry a lot about dew as I've had multiple nights ruined from mirrors, filters and sensor dewing up prior to designing a heating system for it. I do however like to use lenses, and from what i can see the QHY model can be used with Canon lenses and the QHY filter wheel with some modifications? But does the modification remove the heated front window - or does the sealed sensor room and heated window remain and it's just the heating resistors being exposed? With the ASI it seems very easy to use pretty much any lenses without any modifications. The ASI USB hub could also be useful as i'm thinking about an EFW and an autofocuser. Less cables hanging from scope is always a good thing.

I've made some (very) basic drawing of how i intend for it too look as far as the walls go. The drawing is not to scale however, but it's just to give a clue as to how i want it to look. I intend for the walls to be probably around 150-170cm tall, and thinking of a diameter of around 100-110cm. I want make sure my Explorer 200 PDS can at least run around freely without any ricks of bumping into anything. I've not yet decided on the top if i will have a rotating dome with an opening, or a dome that i simply flip off. The flip off would probably be easier to design and make, but harder to use when it's that high up and -20c.

That's a stunning image from just 4 minutes exposure! Personally i don't mind the background noise at all. I prefer this type any day in front of one where they have tried to cover up the noise too much and lost loads of faint details on the way.

Nice final image, and the telescope makes it even better! May i ask why you decided to give the camera a 10 sec rest between the frames? I tried similar myself to save on the shutter box (as it's already been replaced once) and found out no gap between exposures gave me best result as any gap would show up in full resolution.

Very nice capture!

Thanks guys! It's taken several days to gather the materials needed, digging the hole, blending the concrete and having it dry. It already feels like I've done a lot, but i guess I've basically just dug a hole and filled it again so far... The last 3 pictures where the pier is extended is not quiet ready yet, it's only put on top there for now. I will wait until I've been able to get a mounting plate ready for the HEQ5 before i do that part as i want the attachment bolts deep inside the concrete. This is why I've left all 3 steel bars sticking up quite a bit, hoping when i do the final part it will make a proper connection. I've bought some M12 stainless steel threaded bars that i was planing on using to attach the mounting plate. I was planing to use 6 of them to attach the plate, and i chose stainless steel as it's flexing significantly less then standard steel. I've not yet 100% decided on using them, increasing them to M16, or to buy a pre-made mounting plate though. Does anyone know if there are any decent HEQ5 pier mounting plates available? I've been looking at this one, and while it looks fine, it's maybe a bit expensive..? It does use M16 bolts, but then again "only" 4 of them. http://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/language/en/info/p8594_Lacerta-Concrete-Pier-Adapter-for-Skywatcher-mount-EQ5.html

I've had enough nights ruined by gentle wind, animals walking next to the scope, or me accidentally bumping into the tripod legs - so now i'm giving a pier installation a go. So far i've dug out a hole that is 120*120*80 cm and filled it with concrete and steel bars. This is around 1,8 tons, hopefully enough to hold it stable. The pier have a diameter of 190 mm and will be around 170 cm tall. I am still working on how to do the roof, but the "walls" i have decided i will make in a hexagon shape. I've also considered making the pier thicker, but i think i'll just have to see how much it's flexing once it's done. I will update with more images and info as i progress. Any advices, notes, warning or any other type of feedback is highly welcome as i'm a complete noob at this...

Thanks guys! At first to me it looked like a rather faint and not-so-great image of M13 - but after careful comparison to several other M13 images, it looks like it's actually quite high resolution, but contains only the very brightest part of the core, and so i must say I'm quite please with it.

Glad you got the guiding working. 10 min is not bad at all! A darker location would help, but i think you can still capture a lot from that location. Both clusters, galaxies and brighter nebula. Your image contains very little red color data, but assuming you're shooting in raw the color should be corrected quite easily. Hope you don't mind, but i did some small adjustments to your image to better show what you captured. The color should be possible to fix from the raw files, and more details is should be possible by gathering more data even from that location.

Whops - i think that "something" would be me, i was thinking about imaging, not guiding. I should have read the post more carefully. Sorry PHD auto-stretches the image, so that might be why. I haven't seen the same image as you got though, i usually just see noise - but if sensor temp increased after taking darks - it's likely PHD will detect the new hot pixels, think they're stars, and stretch according to those. Your last two images look quite good at least, so camera appears fine. I'm not sure how to focus your guide scope, but maybe it's possible to twist the front (like on many other finder scopes)? On my finder scope i found it easiest just to move the camera in/out and lock in position once quite close. Getting perfect focus like this is nearly impossible, but luckily for guiding that isn't needed. I focus mine with a different program then PHD. Firecapture or sharpcap for example. Any program that allow manual exposure and live view without stretching will make the job significantly faster and easier.

That looks really nice Curious though, what happend to the red channel? Out of focus, exposed different, or just missaligned?

That's a stunning M13 image! Mine just look like a faint blob in comparison, i have some works to do i see...