Roof roller system

[Uplooker]

Hi Andy,

Just read this thread from start to finish. I am very impressed with your design and skills to boot. I, like others have said, am dying to see the finish article. Hope the weather and electrics play ball. Roll on first light in the new Obs.

ian

[Mukv]

Greetings from inside my obsy the internet is now fully installed with 1Gb networking and I have light and power, still no red led's as yet but next week the postman may come to my rescue.

Looking to the next job of painting the walls a pretty colour, if my girls get their way it will be all PINK !!.

Pictures from inside to follow later !

Andy

[todd8137]

Greetings from inside my obsy the internet is now fully installed with 1Gb networking and I have light and power, still no red led's as yet but next week the postman may come to my rescue.

Looking to the next job of painting the walls a pretty colour, if my girls get their way it will be all PINK !!.

Pictures from inside to follow later !

Andy

The fizzy plonk will be flat get ya finger out ,party night soon

Pat

[Tinker1947]

Greetings from inside my obsy the internet is now fully installed with 1Gb networking and I have light and power, still no red led's as yet but next week the postman may come to my rescue.

Looking to the next job of painting the walls a pretty colour, if my girls get their way it will be all PINK !!.

Pictures from inside to follow later !

Andy

Flock it in black so you suck up any stray light...

[Mukv]

Greetings

Finally got the tube mounted this morning and everything is looking good, the calculated space around the tube is spot on  and horizon is looking good too

now waiting for the cloud cannon to shoot some holes to look through.

Andy

[Mukv]

Greetings

A little more progress today and placed the slabs at the front of the obsy to make an area for table and chairs , hope to be using this soon because this week will see first light weather permitting.

Painting the inside is ongoing just wood primer so far picking up the colour Monday with luck.

Andy

[Mukv]

Turf will be acquired this week to tidy up the sides all around the slabs

[Mukv]

Greetings

The main build is now complete and first light passed with mixed results,

First the obsy worked perfect in every way, the roof is slick and quick to operate and it got it's first test last weekend with the thunder storms, whiles doing the slew tests and comms tests to the equipment in the obsy thunder sounded outside and as I stepped out the first drops of rain fell,  less than a minute later the roof was closed and everything safe and dry !

Second the camera connections were tested between obsy and house , Canon 5Dmk2 QHY img132e and both lifecams  (Studio and Cinema) all showed great images on the pc screen , this is too easy !!!

Third the control was established to the NEQ6 and it responded as expected still no problems,  I like this astronomy malarkey !!!

Next the DIY focus control tested out perfect in both speeds and in both directions! I'm on a winner here !

lastly the little webcam I use to watch the whole action happening live showed everything in it's own little window GAME SET AND MATCH !!!

At this point all you seasoned astronomers reading this will have noticed that something is wrong, It shouldn't happen like this !!!!

I switched everything off in the obsy turned off the light shut the door locked it and retired smugly to the house for a nice cup of tea!

Tuesday evening arrived and with a phone call from a friend First light was on for the new kid on the block. 10:30 the skied dimmed and the power was switched on PC woke up slowly with water cooling humming away nicely one by one each system was connected to the USB and duly acknowledged by the computer ,the moon was crawling into view slowly this was going to be the first thing viewed because the finder scope fitted with the Microsoft LifeCam studio needed to be lined up with the main tube that was wearing the QHY at that time, both cameras had their own little window open then with Dave looking along the line of the tube we zeroed in on the moon for the first time.

Slew commands were sent the tube swung into action ( I LOVE THIS HOBBY ) slowly but surly the moon appeared in the finder scope window, at this point I was thinking half hour or so and we will be ready for action ! WRONG !!! looking at the window for the QHY img 132e the image was jumping around and the window divided itself into quadrants each with a different part of the main camera image like one of those sliding tile puzzles where you have to rearrange the tiles to recreate the picture , just a glitch I will reboot the camera software. A few mins later the software was up and running again, err same puzzle in the window, ok I'll just reboot the pc after all  it all worked the day before didn't it!

10 mins later PC rebooted everything connected and talking to everything else PHEW ! by this time moon was in view again on finder scope camera but the QHY was glitching out again ( I can sort this, it's just teething troubles).

The next hour was filled with connecting and disconnecting usb cables the same with power supply cables testing voltage on every thing that had voltage even things that didn't have voltage that might get voltage then checked the earth rod connection just to be sure because after that thunderstorm earlier that weekend....... Everything had what it needed where it needed it! ( PERHAPS CROSSWORD PUZZLES ARE A CALMER HOBBY). 

Complete shutdown and reboot then half hour later still the same ( I HATE ASTRONOMY)

That was last night, this evening after dinner with the kids and playing catch the guinea pigs in the lounge I sat in front of the PC switched it on and had that kick in the nutts moment !!! I remember moving the main USB connection from the Belkin powered hub on my desk to a socket on the rear of the pc just so I had the usb slot available for  memory sticks or external hard drives 15 mins later and everything was playing together including my new cloud fanclub hovering above watching and laughing!

I LOVE THIS GAME

I'll post some pictures later in the week when I collect all the hair from room!

Andy

[todd8137]

Glad things went ok for ya my first night was fun and games to nothing would connect software was throwing a wobbler cables all over the places.a think it was two nights before guiding got running and every thing fell into,place sat watching a film as this subs roll in

Good luck for the future

Pat

[Mukv]

Cheers m8 I'll send you an invite when everything is settled.

Andy

[todd8137]

As and when Andy glad it's all done mine seemed to,drag on for ages but good friends gave me a hand ,when I did the unveil things all went wrong the mount had a mind of it's own

Pat

[Gina]

I know the feeling

[red dwalf]

been reading your thread with interest Andy, very nice build, will bring much joy to the hobby being able to get running in a few minutes, been there with the usb problems myself, at one stage even did a full reinstall of windows to try and fix the problem, lovely day that was.

anyway keep sending the pictures in as we love to see these builds.

[Mikyg]

Great read

Greetings

The main build is now complete and first light passed with mixed results,

First the obsy worked perfect in every way, the roof is slick and quick to operate and it got it's first test last weekend with the thunder storms, whiles doing the slew tests and comms tests to the equipment in the obsy thunder sounded outside and as I stepped out the first drops of rain fell,  less than a minute later the roof was closed and everything safe and dry !

Second the camera connections were tested between obsy and house , Canon 5Dmk2 QHY img132e and both lifecams  (Studio and Cinema) all showed great images on the pc screen , this is too easy !!!

Third the control was established to the NEQ6 and it responded as expected still no problems,  I like this astronomy malarkey !!!

Next the DIY focus control tested out perfect in both speeds and in both directions! I'm on a winner here !

lastly the little webcam I use to watch the whole action happening live showed everything in it's own little window GAME SET AND MATCH !!!

At this point all you seasoned astronomers reading this will have noticed that something is wrong, It shouldn't happen like this !!!!

I switched everything off in the obsy turned off the light shut the door locked it and retired smugly to the house for a nice cup of tea!

Tuesday evening arrived and with a phone call from a friend First light was on for the new kid on the block. 10:30 the skied dimmed and the power was switched on PC woke up slowly with water cooling humming away nicely one by one each system was connected to the USB and duly acknowledged by the computer ,the moon was crawling into view slowly this was going to be the first thing viewed because the finder scope fitted with the Microsoft LifeCam studio needed to be lined up with the main tube that was wearing the QHY at that time, both cameras had their own little window open then with Dave looking along the line of the tube we zeroed in on the moon for the first time.

Slew commands were sent the tube swung into action ( I LOVE THIS HOBBY ) slowly but surly the moon appeared in the finder scope window, at this point I was thinking half hour or so and we will be ready for action ! WRONG !!! looking at the window for the QHY img 132e the image was jumping around and the window divided itself into quadrants each with a different part of the main camera image like one of those sliding tile puzzles where you have to rearrange the tiles to recreate the picture , just a glitch I will reboot the camera software. A few mins later the software was up and running again, err same puzzle in the window, ok I'll just reboot the pc after all  it all worked the day before didn't it!

10 mins later PC rebooted everything connected and talking to everything else PHEW ! by this time moon was in view again on finder scope camera but the QHY was glitching out again ( I can sort this, it's just teething troubles).

The next hour was filled with connecting and disconnecting usb cables the same with power supply cables testing voltage on every thing that had voltage even things that didn't have voltage that might get voltage then checked the earth rod connection just to be sure because after that thunderstorm earlier that weekend....... Everything had what it needed where it needed it! ( PERHAPS CROSSWORD PUZZLES ARE A CALMER HOBBY). 

Complete shutdown and reboot then half hour later still the same ( I HATE ASTRONOMY)

That was last night, this evening after dinner with the kids and playing catch the guinea pigs in the lounge I sat in front of the PC switched it on and had that kick in the nutts moment !!! I remember moving the main USB connection from the Belkin powered hub on my desk to a socket on the rear of the pc just so I had the usb slot available for  memory sticks or external hard drives 15 mins later and everything was playing together including my new cloud fanclub hovering above watching and laughing!

I LOVE THIS GAME

I'll post some pictures later in the week when I collect all the hair from room!

Andy

[todd8137]

Andy did you do any thing with the data yet ?

Pat

[Mukv]

Greetings

I have a few runs with the mars images but not stacked it yet will try after food this evening( give me 60 mins ish )

Andy

[Mukv]

Greetings

had a go with the data but nothing worth playing with, next time...

I got my 10mm lens back today will take some wide pics inside obsy in morning.

Andy

[Mukv]

Greetings

I would like to close my build thread with a few pictures from inside my obsy, I hope you enjoyed the progress as much as I did while creating this haven for my gear.

If anyone want to visit please drop me a msg and I'm sorry but I deleted the last set of msg's and lost your contact number Alan please get in touch.

Overall the system I have used seems to be very solid and easy to construct the system could be used to extend in both directions to make an even larger internal space

by just adding extra frames and bolting together a modular system of sorts

Clear skies everyone

Andy

[todd8137]

That small little fan there will cause a cold spot on the mirror my 300p had one on it cools the centre to quickly ,glad the sheds finished onwards and upwards

Pat

[Mukv]

Hi M8

I set it to draw air from the mirror not blow onto it but as yet I've not used it, I have 120mm fan but not made a bracket yet,

your welcome to come over for a brew any time.

Andy

[todd8137]

I got a really big one in the end ,and made four brackets that held it around six inches away ,only ever a problem in summer tho

Pat

[todd8137]

Ps might pop over next clear night send me a msg next time you out or a txt

Pat

[Mukv]

That sounds like a plan

Andy

ps I had a run on m110 with a few 15 second exposures few night ago.I'l stick it her in a few mins

[todd8137]

Great looking forward did you say you had a guide scope and stuff yet ?

Pat

[Mukv]

found it 8 frames 10 seconds each

one  of the first from the new obsy.

Andy