the yesyes observatory - the build

[DrRobin]

Yes, and I'll make it black. "Every time I press one of these black controls, labelled in black on a black background, a little black light lights up black to let me know I've done it."

If you do that Chris, it might be a disaster area? That or your obs will dive in to the sun.

Robin

[mac19]

Great job! I have got to stop pursuing these obsy builds... I'm still in the process of purchasing a scope for god sake...

[red dwalf]

your own obsy however big or small is a great asset to the hobby.

[Astrobug]

You warmroom looks like houston control room!

[yesyes]

NOW it is an observatory

Though it looks like my mount (CG5-GT) has not survived lying on the loft for a year and a half. When I tell it to move west it goes about 10 degrees west of the index mark and then stops dead. No error displayed on the hand controller. I can slew east again and when I go back west it stops at the same point again. Further east works fine and north / south also works fine. When I open the clutch I can easily move it further west by hand, so it's not hitting anything.

Needs further investigation...

[Ant F]

coming along great. im well jel now.  mines cowboyish compared to this job haha

[yesyes]

thanks

but you built yours in a few weeks, mine's taken almost a year now and I still haven't had first light. I never expected it to take so long.

[Ant F]

yeh but ive also spend hundreds. trail and errors along the way. like the wheels forr example. if i could have found bigger ones i would have used them.  id of also built that whole roof one level and had two layers for the warm room.  but never mind.  ive got a door to build this weekend.

[Gina]

I empathise with that Chris   Mine just seemed to go on and on   And it still isn't finished   I'm hoping the weather will let be get on with sorting out the new wheels and the motorised opening and closing soon.  The forecast is looking quite good for a change

[SnakeyJ]

Very nice to see it all coming together and starting to look like a proper observatory Chris - though don't think these things are ever totally finished, despite a first class build.   Sure that once you start using this there will be a number of mods and enhancements to follow.

The SPX looks great on the mount, though perhaps a whisker under mounted for deep sky imaging on the CG5-GT.    Sure it will work though and the planetary performance will be excellent.    Might be a mesh alignment/gear binding on the RA axis, though you would here the motor strain - does it still stop at the same position with out the scope mounted? 

[AstroAdam]

Always jealous when I see another observatory build thread! One day!

[yesyes]

Very nice to see it all coming together and starting to look like a proper observatory Chris - though don't think these things are ever totally finished, despite a first class build.   Sure that once you start using this there will be a number of mods and enhancements to follow.

The SPX looks great on the mount, though perhaps a whisker under mounted for deep sky imaging on the CG5-GT.    Sure it will work though and the planetary performance will be excellent.    Might be a mesh alignment/gear binding on the RA axis, though you would here the motor strain - does it still stop at the same position with out the scope mounted? 

Yes, I might pronounce the obsy operational soon, not finished. ;-)

The SPX is actually much lighter than it looks. I would even say it's lighter than the C8N that was bundled with the mount at the time. Though it is longer and therefore the weight has a bit more leverage on the mount.

I was considering getting a better mount one day (a HEQ5 probably, maybe even NEQ6). But since I spent more on the obsy build than I had budgeted, this will have to wait a while.

Unless of course the CG5 is broken, which would be a good excuse to get a better mount now. But there's still a few things to try. I posted the problem on the CG5 Yahoo group and it has been suggested that it might just think its at a limit. I need to double-check the settings (location mostly) and the coordinates it thinks it's pointing at when it stops slewing. Retesting without the scope and weights is probably also a good idea.

[SnakeyJ]

Limits in eqmod, hadn't thought of that - good luck sorting, at least something that can be sorted in daylight.

Really want a 10" spx or vx, though had been considering an eq6 first - might reconsider in light of these comments and try this on my heq5.

typed on my mobile with Tapatalk

[yesyes]

not EQMOD limits but apparently the mount itself has limits. Does the CG5-GT even work with EQMOD? That would be the greatest news! Being able to use EQMOD is one of the main reasons why I would want an EQ series mount. The other main reason being the noise the CG5 makes when slewing fast.

Don't take my word for it that the SPX is lighter. I haven't actually weighed either of the scopes. Come to think of it, I had to move the counterweights out a little bit, but not much, compared to the C8N. So it must be slightly heavier.

also, I forgot to mention, I measured the smallest distance between the walls and the scope. It is between 40 and 50cm on all 4 sides, so just fine. The inside dimensions of the scope room are about 2.40 x 2.40m (8x 8 ft). Shouldn't be any smaller for this size of scope.

[Tinker1947]

I had a similar thing with my NEQ6 running in EQMod it would only slew so far then stop, there is a pop-up box can't remember what it called in EQMod that some how had a tick in one of the options this was the cause of my trouble, unticked it and all was well again, sorry can't remember how i found it, but its a right click on i would think the main or toolbox screen sections....Good Luck....

Maybe not a lot of good my information if your not using a EQMod type mount....

[malc-c]

Chris, you're out of luck, EQmod is built around the Skywatcher mounts..... There's an HEQ5 up for grabs in the classifieds ( http://stargazerslounge.com/classifieds/item/3283-heq5-pro-synscanmount-with-86ah-powertank/ )

With EQMod there is an option to use the scope to trace the outline of your horizon so that it effectively stops the scope slewing to an object that can't be seen from the observing location.  It also prevents the mount from driving the scope into the pier.  These limits can be enabled with a simple "use limits" check box

[SnakeyJ]

Chris, you're out of luck, EQmod is built around the Skywatcher mounts..... There's an HEQ5 up for grabs in the classifieds ( http://stargazerslounge.com/classifieds/item/3283-heq5-pro-synscanmount-with-86ah-powertank/ )

With EQMod there is an option to use the scope to trace the outline of your horizon so that it effectively stops the scope slewing to an object that can't be seen from the observing location.  It also prevents the mount from driving the scope into the pier.  These limits can be enabled with a simple "use limits" check box

I didn't know the CG5-GT would not work with EQmod, is this also the case with the other Celestron mounts like the Advanced VX and CGEM's?

[yesyes]

Thanks for the link to that listing Malcolm. A bit far away for pick-up but I'll keep my eyes open for any that come up nearer to me or any that are willing to post it. I might contact the seller anyway, can't hurt to ask. ;-)

There was a used HEQ5pro for sale at my local astro club a while ago for £240. I should have bought that one straight away...

Jake, as far as I know EQMOD is only for Skywatcher EQ mounts (hence the name).

[Lonestar70]

Hi Chris,

There is an Ascom driver for Celestron mounts.

http://ascom-standards.org/Downloads/ScopeDrivers.htm

This should work with your mount.

Worth a try.

Good to see you are almost up and running.

Best regards.

Sandy.

[Ant F]

i discovered Stellarium today to control my cg5, wow its great. i am looking to try and get some solar viewing for summer.  

[yesyes]

Sandy, thanks, but I have that ASCOM driver and it works fine. EQMOD has a lot more functionality than that rather simple driver that is available for Celestron mounts.

[Lonestar70]

Hi Chris,

Ok... no problem... yes I know how much EQMOD can do, I use it myself... I thought perhaps that this driver would work with EQMOD.

Strange if there is not one... Celestron and SW are effectively the same company so I would have thought the command protocols used were similar for the 2 mounts.

Might be worth bouncing the question off Chris Shillito... he should know what is what.

Best Regards

Sandy.

[malc-c]

Sandy, they might both be made by synta, but are in essence two separate brands, and use different protocols to communicate between handset and mount.  I dare say that it may be possible that someone has written some form of translator between the to, but a lot of the functionality EQMOD offers would be lost.  The thing that strikes me, given how popular the C6 - C11 scopes are, that someone who is cleaver at programming hasn't written an application like EQMOD for Celestron telescopes. 

[Ant F]

is that EQMOD better than using stellarium and pressing CTRL + 1 to go to the stars etc??  

[yesyes]

phewww, the problem is not the mount! I just tested it again and it looks like the mount just thought it was already pointing 90 degrees east and didn't want to go any further. I went through the alignment procedure again (without actually aligning properly because it's cloudy) and now I can slew normally in all directions. That's a relief.