Gina's Observatory Build - Abbreviated - Finishing Touches and Improvements

[Gina]

Oh so true!!!

[Gina]

Been working on the roof wheels on the south side.  The third wheel didn't help but I think I've found the problem.  The inverted V rail is rubbing on the woodwork, so I need to trim some more wood off.  Probably need to move the pin and hole at the SE corner, for holding the roof on in a hurricane.  May need to re-think that.

The power supply hasn't turned up yet   May decide to modify another (if I can find a 3 pin XLR chassis socket).

[Tinker1947]

I got an uninteresting afternoon, installing Win 7 and heaps of other software.....

[Gina]

Boring job

I just don't know where else to look for my power supply   I have two others (at least - but I've found two) but no chassis sockets or for that matter inline sockets.  I suppose I could take the plug off the cable and temporarily commect one of the other PSUs but I would rather not.

[Gina]

If I were superstitious I might think there was a jinx on my imaging this year!

[Gina]

I've ordered some XLR chassis sockets to put on other PSU - should be here Wednesday   That should make the missing PSU turn up!   Who said I wasn't superstitious?

[Lonestar70]

Hi Gina,

Go look for something you don't want then the power supply will appear.

Isn't it always the way.    

Keep happy.

Best regards.

Sandy.

[Gina]

Thank you Sandy

FOUND IT!  It was amongst some clothes I wwas sorting through in my bedroom   A place that never occurred to me during my searches

[Gina]

PSU connected and cameras working.  Kit set up is MN190 with 460EX, EFW2 and OAG with Lodestar.  Slewed to the eastern horizon and focussed on the distant trees using the remote focus system.  Also focussed the guide camera on the OAG by sliding the Lodestar in/out and using the Lodestar softwere with exposure set to 1/1000 sec and unbinned to get low enough sensitivity in daylight.  I think I might make a remote focuser for the guide camera though once set it's usually alright.  One advantage of an OAG, of course, is that further focussing follows the scope focus so that should now be right and I'll only have to refocus the scope for the stars compared with the mile distant trees.  With terrestrial focussing at a mile there is only a fairly small adjustment needed for astro.

[Gina]

I think I'm all set up now for an imaging session this evening so keeping fingers crossed that the sky stays clear.  There were some wispy bits of cloud about earlier but most seem to have gone now   Any imaging will have to be NB with the full moon - unless I image the moon itself   Or I might check the PA but that's rather too boring after all this time.  Doubt if long exposures will be on anyway.

I've made some progress towards laying a gravel path from house to obsy   Yesterday I fixed the starter relay wiring that had been knawed through by rats, charged up the battery and and got the pick-up working.  Then I checked the tractor electrics and put the battery on charge.  By this afternoon the tractor battery was well charged and after a short blast of heat on the injectors it started.  I had to move the pick-up to get the tractor out. 

So this afternoon I got the tractor out and used the front hydraulic arms to get the bucket out of the undergrowth and ready to put on the arms.  I plan to use the bucket to remove a couple of feet width of turf off for the path and then again use it to cart gravel from the pile in the yard onto the parh.  I guees I ought go get some membrane that will let the wet through but stop weeds or grass coming up through the gravel.

[Gina]

A lovely clear night with very nearly full moon.  Got problems with the EQ8 mount though   Gross slewing errors - won't go away and then back to same place.  Set up on the moon for rough focus and mount position then tried to find M51.  Used CdC to slew to it but it wasn't in the FOV so I checked slewing back to the moon and it was miles off!   Several degrees in fact - I could see by eye that the scope wasn't pointing at the moon.  Have to see if I can do anything with it in the daytime tomorrow.  Meanwhile here's one of the images I took of the moon - for what it's worth.  0.1s exposure with 5nm Ha filter.

[Gina]

I was about to post ing the mount forum when I looked through stuff already posted and found a long thread on the problems people are having with EQ8 mounts.  Much of it seem to be just what I'm getting.  I'm curremtly in the process of reading through all 13 pages of it    The mount seemed alright last autumn just after I'd bought it but I didn't get the opportunity to give it a good work-out due to the weather.  Now it seems I have a duff one :(

I shall now be finishing off reading that thread and replying in it.  Then I shall have to think very seriously about what I want to do.  With "real life" problems and worries I'm not sure I can cope with yet more hassle or want to   I need possitive thing coming out of my hobbies and pasttimes to counteract the negatives.  I really can do without this!!!

[Astroscot2]

Gina, have you tried the latest firmware updates for the HC and Motors, Or it may be your software ?

[Gina]

I does seem that there's a frirmware upgrade that would help - it reduces the maximum speed of slewing a bit and reduces the acceleration and deceleration on starting and stopping.  This should help prevent clutch slippage and stop the grating noise I'm getting with max speed slewing at one point.

I spent most of the afternoon playing around with the mount and I believe I've got it sorted out   I think the reason for not returning to the same position was slipping clutches.  I took everything off the mount including the weight and tried it out with no load.  It seemed to slew in all directions fine.  Checking the clutches I found that even with the levers all the way over to the hold position I could still move the mount by hand.  So I undid the screws that hold the levers onto the shafts and reset the positions so that the clutches only just slipped with the levers in the off position.  Now when tightened all the way up it's a lot harder to move the mount though I think this could be better.  This is an aspect of the EQ8 that I don't much like.  The levers are awkward to get at and hard to turn with fingers - they could do with being longer.

I then remounted the MN190 and adjusted the balance.  Had to rearrange the filter wheel and guide camera as it was catching on the mount.  When I was setting up the mount I only had the MN190 on it for a short time and was having problems.  I used the Esprit 80ED for setting up PA and not really quite finished when the weather turned bad.  Anyway, I have checked slewing the scope into various positions and tied the cables out of the way of moving parts.  There is some grating noise when slewing at full speed in one direction near the Home position but otherwise the noise is normal.

There is some wispy cloud about but I'm going out shortly to see if I can manage some imaging tonight.

[Gina]

Did some LRGB imaging on M51 the Whirlpool Galaxy until the cloud got too bad.  Here's an earlier Luminance image of 5m with guiding - single sub processed in Ps to clean it up a bit and saved as PNG for upload here.

[Gina]

Did some LRGB imaging on M51 the Whirlpool Galaxy until the cloud got too bad.  Here's an earlier Luminance image of 5m with guiding - single sub processed in Ps to clean it up a bit and saved as PNG for upload here.

[Zakalwe]

Was that with the MN190 Gina?

The star shape looks a wee bit odd?

[Gina]

Yes, the MN190.  I thought the stars looked alright.  Here's a screenshot of a small area zoomed well in in Photoshop.

[Gina]

I have been working on the roll off roof, wheels, carriers and clearances and I can now push it with one finger   I have the centre wheel installed on the south side and this is taking some of the weight and helping.  There is no need for any sort of extra springing/suspension as there is enough flexibility in the timbers.  I have also done some work on the north side to make room for the rail but won't be able to finish this until I get the 3D printer working again to make the wheel carriers.  Hand drilled holes in the wood aren't accurate enough for V wheels and rail.