Gina's Observatory - The Build

[laser_jock99]

Glad to see you are up and imaging now- makes all the hard work worthwhile.

[Gina]

Thank you Yes, it's good to be able to actually use it

[Gina]

OK... a couple of photos of the warm room.

1. The west wall, insulated and panelled with white light and RCD unit.

2. Partition wall with white and red lights and dimmers, showing white light now working. It's on 2-way switching so that I can switch it off at the door as I go out (or on as I come in).

[Ratlord74]

Wonderful stuff gina. I am soooo jelous. Very close to finishing now I look forward to some wonderful images. BTW it took me a few days to work my way through the thread.

[Gina]

Thank you I'm looking forward to some nice images too

Regarding this thread - yes, it is getting pretty long! I'm think I might produce another with just the most significant stages and vastly fewer pics. This thread keeps everyone informed as I go along but for reading straight through I think it's too long and too detailed.

[Ratlord74]

It was worth it though to see the build progress

[Gina]

Today's Progress.

Been fitting out the warm room today. Very wet and windy tonight so probably staying indoors

In detail :-

1. Cut and fitted insulation in partition wall (north side).

2. Cut and fitted plywood panel on partition wall.

3. Cut and fitted insulation in warm room north wall.

4. Cut and fitted insulation in warm room south wall.

Photos of the work in progress starting with the partition wall before fitting insulation.

Insulation fitted.

Plywood panel fitted.

Insulation in warm room north wall.

[Astrokev]

Looking great Gina. This is definitely inspirational.

[Gina]

Thanks Kevin

[Yendor]

Tremendous. You may have answered this in a previous post but I didn't find the answer after a quick scan so I will ask again......... Are you piping in Internet access along with your power, or are you perhaps using WiFi.

Did you solve the issue with the coating on the acrylic sheet ? Be careful if you follow some advice as to chemical aids you might cause "crazing" dependant on how the sheet was made... Extruded or Cast.

Love the pictures your posting up, they've been tremendous throughout the build, I must say this is the first post I look at each time I log In to the forum. It might be good at some future point to set out in some form or another the whole process you went through pointing out the requirements you had and how you approached the build, I reckon that could be a tremendous resource especially if you were able to attempt a critique on the build, and what you might change if you think it could have been done differently. Thats not to say that I feel you've done anything wrong, I just know that whenever I do anything I always learn from the process.

Shame you didn't have video, because this would have made a brilliant mini series on the Discovery Channel "Gina's Build" It's definately something I would have watched !!

[fwm891]

Love the light shades Gina

[Gina]

Tremendous. You may have answered this in a previous post but I didn't find the answer after a quick scan so I will ask again......... Are you piping in Internet access along with your power, or are you perhaps using WiFi.

I'm using WiFi - getting a good signal strength in the warm room

Did you solve the issue with the coating on the acrylic sheet ? Be careful if you follow some advice as to chemical aids you might cause "crazing" dependant on how the sheet was made... Extruded or Cast.

I haven't done it yet. I'm getting quite good daylight on the scope room though getting rid of the coating will give more light, of course. I'm concentrating on other jobs ATM.

Love the pictures your posting up, they've been tremendous throughout the build, I must say this is the first post I look at each time I log In to the forum. It might be good at some future point to set out in some form or another the whole process you went through pointing out the requirements you had and how you approached the build, I reckon that could be a tremendous resource especially if you were able to attempt a critique on the build, and what you might change if you think it could have been done differently. Thats not to say that I feel you've done anything wrong, I just know that whenever I do anything I always learn from the process.

I changed one or two things as the build progressed but ATM I'm quite satisfied with the design and not as yet found anything I would have done differently. Of course, this could change when I get to use it in earnest.

Yes, I could produce a précis of the design thread and similarly with this thread. Both threads are too long for reading all through in the future though serve and have served their purpose of keeping everyone up to date with the details.

Shame you didn't have video, because this would have made a brilliant mini series on the Discovery Channel "Gina's Build" It's definately something I would have watched !!

Time lapse video from the main webcam will be available later, when I get round to doing it. But I didn't "bother" (or think of it actually ) to set up my video camera - I wanted to get on with it as fast as I could (even so it's been 7 or 8 months build time so far).

[carastro]

Excellent work Gina, the inside is looking great too. I shall be sorry when this thread comes to an end, I have found it extremely interesting. I love the warm room, I don't have that option as I have a POD, but I have mine connected remotely to indoors, so I can sit in the warm, once everything it up and running.

Do you have electronic focus, as I found focus rather difficult with the laptop inside and the scope outside (before I got my POD and was using the conservatory with the cables passing through the ajar window). I used to have to turn the laptop round so I could see it through the window in order to focus. Just wondering how you will manage that from inside the warm room, if it's not electronic.

Carole

[GJBC]

in for Xmas then. looking good Gina

[Gina]

Excellent work Gina, the inside is looking great too.

Thank you Carole

I shall be sorry when this thread comes to an end, I have found it extremely interesting. I love the warm room, I don't have that option as I have a POD, but I have mine connected remotely to indoors, so I can sit in the warm, once everything it up and running.

As long as you keep warm But I think it'll be good to have a warm room right next to the scope room. Glad you're enjoying the thread

Do you have electronic focus, as I found focus rather difficult with the laptop inside and the scope outside (before I got my POD and was using the conservatory with the cables passing through the ajar window). I used to have to turn the laptop round so I could see it through the window in order to focus. Just wondering how you will manage that from inside the warm room, if it's not electronic.

Carole

I'm planning to provide remote focus. I did try the webcam with my netbook and found I had to take the netbook into the scope room and put it on some steps for the height. Used an extension USB cable from the warm room to the netbook. So the webcam signal went round in a circle Yes, it needs remote focus. Just have to think how I'm going to provide it. I have a DC motor/gearbox which I used for an RA motor on my old CG3-2 mount. The mount has been superseded so my motor drive is redundant.

I think it wants some easy way to disconnect the focus drive so that I can use the normal focussing knobs to set the focus roughly. OTOH there's still a problem with a webcam - you still need to see the image. Maybe a repeater monitor in the scope room or coarse and fine electric/electronic focussing... More thinking needed

[Gina]

in for Xmas then. looking good Gina

Thanks Grahame

[GJBC]

Hi Gina i note you said you had to balance the laptop not good a the best of times. to connect a usb device?

can you run a network cable back from the obs pier to the Warm room in the conduit you fitted . if so you can connect that to a usb converter set

see

Best Value 45M USB EXTENDER OVER CAT 5E (USB-BOOSTA) - dabs.com

we used these in the obs at cardiff it allows usb to be transferred over longer distance with out the need for repeaters. you can then use a usb focusing unit and control it from the PC. we put two sets in one for the web/cam or imaging camera for the scope and one for anything else eg focus unit

[yesyes]

This is USB1.1 only, so rather slow.

[Gina]

Yes, I already have the same or similar, and yes, I've used it over something like 20m with a powered USB hub at the far end but, yes, it's slow. The netbook was actually pretty safe, being put on a wider step on a 3 step set of steps. But I'll be having a remote focussing system when I can sort something out.

So... remote focussing, I remember reading some posts about this so I'll do a search and see what I can find. Ideally, a USB device with ASCOM driver, so that I can control it with already written software. Otherwise, I have a DC motor/gearbox I could probably fit up, with a control box in the warm room.

[Gina]

I've done a quick search of the forums but need to refine my search somewhat - getting loads of irrelevant posts picked up. What I'm looking for is something to either buy or make, that works with a DS Crayford and provides ASCOM control. Been reading the thread on SharpCap and it looks like it can control an electronic focuser via ASCOM. Haven't finished reading the somewhat long thread yet,

[Gina]

Been looking at posts about electric/electronic focussing. The Skywatcher one looks quite nice but won't fit my focuser without modification. So I'm looking at using one of my DC motor/gearboxes and probably belt drive to the Crayford DS slow knob, with a control box in the warm room. But I'd rather use a ready made unit on the scope - I'm not that good at fitting things onto awkward shapes like the scope and I don't want to drill holes. It's likely that the SW electric focuser could be adapted to fit but I don't want to spend nearly £45 just to find out I can't do it.

[Gina]

All that heavy rain and storm force winds the other day and I only had one small leak in the RH bottom corner of the warm room south window. Strong winds and heavy rain since and nothing. I'd like to know just how the wet got in but I guess with weather like a high power hose it wouldn't be surprising!

[Gina]

Clear sky tonight so been out playing Running the mount from my new Maplin PSU. No moon tonight so been working with Jupiter. Have had my SPC900NC webcam on it. Tried at prime focus but with diagonal in to get focus and also with Celestron x2 Barlow. Then tried both x2 AND x3 Barlows in the light path (x6). Quite a good size image and reasonably sharp on the moons but need to control the exposure to get anything out of Jupiter itself. It's vastly over exposed. Not having set up polar alignment yet, the tracking wasn't perfect but I could keep Jupiter in frame with ASCOM's slewing controls. The seeing was very good - no visible wobble of the image

Now I want to get proper astro capture software running rather than Yawcam. SharpCap looks favourite ATM I'm having XP crashes, either BSOD or straight restart when I'm running Yawcam and all the mount control software.

Must get the door for the partition wall done ASAP and arrange to do everything from the warm room. It's bitterly cold tonight - just over 2C. But the cold didn't stop me but ASCOM came up with a warning that it had hit the meridian and stopped tracking. So I took that as a sign

[Gina]

Here are some webcam images of Jupiter and moons. Levels adjusted in GIMP otherwise nothing done to these single images captured with Yawcam. Looks like the resolution dropped from 640x480 to 320x240 for the narrower angle shots. The lower res is the default. I must have forgotten to check after XP crash.

[swamp thing]

Thank you

Regarding this thread - yes, it is getting pretty long! I'm think I might produce another with just the most significant stages and vastly fewer pics. This thread keeps everyone informed as I go along but for reading straight through I think it's too long and too detailed.

Don't be daft. It's a great thread with super pics and a thoroughly enjoyable read.

Thanks for sharing. We are all there in spirit watching your efforts.

Regards Steve