WADAS (Wakefield and District Astronomical Society)

[Astronomer69]

Was brilliant what a talented guy peter is.

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[MattGoo]

An excellent evening, got a good view of Jupiter when we arrived. Although I'm kind of glad it clouded over, since it was great to have a look around and hear Peter talk enthusiastically about his telescopes.

Certainly an inspirational guy and probably has got a few of us thinking differently about piers for our scopes! 

[Soupy]

An excellent night at Todmorden last night, was truly inspired by Peter, he is a technical genius! Damian/Crash his 30" Dob was amazing think that might be your next scope build!

Have been thinking of building my own pier in the garden, now I know how to do it. Will have to have a run down to B&Q and pick up some bits. Kieran I might have a little room for one for you as well ;-)

[Soupy]

Oh and almost forgot, we got a great view of the ISS shooting across Orion when we first got there as well as an amazing view of Jupiter through the 16" Meade. Thanks once again Peter.

[mapstar]

Pier's are easy to build soupy and unlike a tripod mega stable.I can see a roll off roof shed on its way now with a pier in the middle already ;-)

22" will be hard enough to finish and then I'm having a break to enjoy it!

[Soupy]

The piers Peter made cost about £30 Damian and seemed very easy to do and solid as as rock, not like the £400/£500 ones you see being built here. I am seriously tempted to build one at the bottom of the garden free standing until I can persuade the misses I need a full roll off roof observatory as well. :-)

Now going out for a few hours, clear skies no work tomorrow sounds like it should be good but there is a slight wind. I am going to see if I can get some light on the atik tonight maybe even the new canon as well, if it stays clear I'll have plenty of time.

[mapstar]

It looked crystal clear as I walked out of the door to go to work.

Yeah I'd say about that too as it's all concrete and pipe that's needed, hardest part is attaching a mounting point for the head of the tri pod.

[MattGoo]

Amazingly it looked clear for tonight, so I headed out onto Rothwell Country Park with my newly acquired fisheye lens. Managed to dodge a bit of cloud and get some images.

Really struggled to get focus with the CLS Light Pollution Filter in, so ended up taking it out and then found it much better, but it makes everything distinctly orange being this close to Leeds centre!

[Astronomer69]

An excellent night at Todmorden last night, was truly inspired by Peter, he is a technical genius! Damian/Crash his 30" Dob was amazing think that might be your next scope build!

Have been thinking of building my own pier in the garden, now I know how to do it. Will have to have a run down to B&Q and pick up some bits. Kieran I might have a little room for one for you as well ;-)

I'm liking the sound of that Paul.

[nicks90]

if you want a simple freestanding pier with a metal shaped head to bolt your eq on to - throw me some specs and i could weld one up for you using 4x4" central pier with 1" outriggers in a couple of hours

[Soupy]

All Peter used was a leveled base with 4 flags laid out then one flag bolted centrally across all 4 to stabilise. Then for the main pier he just used a few of those breeze blocks with the spaces in the middle (not sure of their official name but they look like big square figure of 8's) bolted together. Then a main bolt running through the top to put mount on, but I am sure if you could knock up a welded piece for the top then that would be excellent Nick.

Gonna have to wait till misses comes back from USA to see if I can persuade her to let me have the bottom of the garden for the project. :-)

[hazegood]

Gonna have to wait till misses comes back from USA to see if I can persuade her to let me have the bottom of the garden for the project. :-)

Depending on how brave you are, you could just build it before she gets back ...

[mapstar]

All Peter used was a leveled base with 4 flags laid out then one flag bolted centrally across all 4 to stabilise. Then for the main pier he just used a few of those breeze blocks with the spaces in the middle (not sure of their official name but they look like big square figure of 8's) bolted together. Then a main bolt running through the top to put mount on, but I am sure if you could knock up a welded piece for the top then that would be excellent Nick.

Gonna have to wait till misses comes back from USA to see if I can persuade her to let me have the bottom of the garden for the project. :-)

Pipe concreted in ground with mounting on top then build a fancy bird table to go on top whilst its not in use ;-)

[Astronomer69]

All Peter used was a leveled base with 4 flags laid out then one flag bolted centrally across all 4 to stabilise. Then for the main pier he just used a few of those breeze blocks with the spaces in the middle (not sure of their official name but they look like big square figure of 8's) bolted together. Then a main bolt running through the top to put mount on, but I am sure if you could knock up a welded piece for the top then that would be excellent Nick.

Gonna have to wait till misses comes back from USA to see if I can persuade her to let me have the bottom of the garden for the project. :-)

Well if she goes ahead with it Paul I'll always come over to help also my dads an engineer so he could knock up something for the EQ to sit on.

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[Soupy]

Damian he says a solid pipe concreted into the ground will have too much vibration, the ones he makes have less vibration as they are not as solid, but are still as stable... As for the bird table the cat would love that!

Kieran might need him to knock up two ;-)

[mapstar]

Damian he says a solid pipe concreted into the ground will have too much vibration, the ones he makes have less vibration as they are not as solid, but are still as stable... As for the bird table the cat would love that!

Kieran might need him to knock up two ;-)

I'll bow to experience, I didn't really explain what I meant but just thought a pipe filled with concrete would have minimal vibration (more mass = less vibration) and look way better than a pile of breeze blocks in the corner of the garden which maybe easier to justify? 

[Soupy]

I thought the same Damian but on reflection a solid pipe will transmit the vibration easier than one that is not as solid, makes sense when you think about it.

As for looking better that might be a point unless I clad the blocks with a bit of board, but that all still depends on getting the appropriate planning permission from the higher authorities (wife) ;-)

[mapstar]

I thought the same Damian but on reflection a solid pipe will transmit the vibration easier than one that is not as solid, makes sense when you think about it.

As for looking better that might be a point unless I clad the blocks with a bit of board, but that all still depends on getting the appropriate planning permission from the higher authorities (wife) ;-)

If the pipe route is taken how about rubber mount points for damping, work great on our stuff in industry to hold our laser measurement and cctv equipment 

Something like this

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Anti-Vibration-Mount-Rubber-Bobbin-Mounting-M8-40x30mm-/291075034298?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item43c56c8cba

I will be building the box for Gains cell very shortly too so more pics on flickr

[nicks90]

Guys,

Its national astronomy week in 6 days and we have an event at parker road next weekend!

We would like to make this another public event, get the GCSE kids involved towards their coursework etc, so if we could all make an effort to put aside an hour or two in the evening, that would be great.

Can we all try and do a bit of advertising by sharing the event on Twitter, Facebook and by word of mouth - Sammy, anything you can do publicity orientated with any contacts you've made would be cool too.

It would be great if we could get some public along like we did for SGL, as Jupiter is promising to be a real treat being so high up - plus the long range weather forecast is looking promising too!

[stonemonkeylives]

What night are we looking at? I know on the events list it was mentioned that Astronomy week starts the 2nd, which is the Sunday. So is the event planned for then?

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[nicks90]

Yep, its Sunday 2nd.

Meet up at parker road at 7pm?

I'll throw together a couple of A3 sized signs for the end of the road pointing to the carpark.

Can we get twittered and face booked for the event and get something on t'website?

Soupy, are we expecting a horde of GCSE kids doing their observing coursework?

[Soupy]

I'm hoping we will get quite a few yes Nick, I will be there a bit earlier as there is a very thin crescent moon about so hope to get a few images of that. Did we say running from 7-9?

[Astronomer69]

Website is already updated.

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[Astronomer69]

Just checked weather and forcast looking good for Tomoz night if anybody fancies a session.

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[mapstar]

Just checked weather and forcast looking good for Tomoz night if anybody fancies a session.

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May get out for a few hours Kieran and take a break from telescope building