A project for the soul

[jimao22]

So this is where we are now. To reach this stage, we need only 6 working days, which is amazing, because my previous experience, with my personal observatory, was far more longer than that. The conclusion - experience is a great help. 

We have a building, almost complete, we have 90% of the set-up for AP.

What we need more:

- a guiding camera - these days I will buy a DMK21.AU618 for guiding purpose and planetary photo as well

- a filter wheel - preferably motorized - this will be a financial issue... We'll see.

- interior usefull furniture - a box for the computer, a dehumidifier

- electrical and mechanical connection between the whole set-up parts, to become functional

- perhaps a lot of other things I do not imagine right now

I will be back at George's home after 15-th of September so any update of the projects will be displayed here after that date.

Many thanks to all who kindly made remarks and comments here. I hope I will finish this project soon, to help George to meet his dream.  

[jimao22]

Even if I didn't post here for a while, the project was going on and my visit from last September occur as planned. Meanwhile we received some new items to complete our equipment such as a manual filter wheel (a present from a colleague on Romanian astronomy forum), a DMK 618 camera as a guiding camera, filters - Ha and OIII , Baader Planetarium ones.

I did not have too much time to spend on this visit but we finished some things - I closed some open spaces on the roof, to secure the observatory from the coming winter, I installed the software necessary to control the mount and the cameras, I did the test for connectivity with all the equipment.

But the most important event was we were able to see the Moon eclipse from 27-28 of September, and I think we were the only ones from all over the country who sow that eclipse from start to finish in the best ever conditions. That was possible by a miracle, because the forecast was bad for all Romania but a small part of the South-East, near the Black sea, with 50-50 chances to have a decent sky.

But the sky was perfect starting with 10 o'clock in the evening and moreover, the temperature was perfect - around 16 degree Celsius all night long. When Sun was rising, the clouds rolled over and that was our chance to see everything like we were in the eye of the cyclone.

The pictures below tell the story of the last visit from 2015 better than I did it here.

 

[jimao22]

The man with the beard is Valentin Grigore, the president of the Romanian Astronomical Society for Meteors (SARM), who was around our area at that particular moment and joined us with happiness and joy. He made the pictures of the Moon with his DSLR equipped with a huge and a very expensive objective.

[saac]

What a fantastic effort and and such an inspiring story.  

Jim

[jimao22]

Thank you for your nice words, Jim. 

I want to add to these part of the story that the last picture is an iconic one - with the Moon under eclipse, the Orion very well distinguish and the ISS passing by (the long trail). It was just before down but we were full of energy after an unbelievable night...

[Stub Mandrel]

5 minutes ago, jimao22 said:

Thank you for your nice words, Jim. 

I want to add to these part of the story that the last picture is an iconic one - with the Moon under eclipse, the Orion very well distinguish and the ISS passing by (the long trail). It was just before down but we were full of energy after an unbelievable night...

That is a great photo, especially when you know the story behind it.

:-)

[jimao22]

I think this was the first night spent outside by George, from the start to the end, and it was a very nice opportunity to use what we have there for a precise purpose, connected to  AP.

As I told you, I did not post here for a long time, due to the fact I am very busy in my everyday life but I try to keep my promises and I will keep you updated about our project. The eclipse time was last time I meet George last year but meanwhile I prepared another visit for work, this time with another friend of mine - a very good one - and a wizard in electronics / automation / programing, Matei Conovici on his name. Matei is from Bucharest and he helped me a lot with the motor from my ROR, back home. A very short film with my "new" motor electronically rebuild from the scratch by Matei is here -  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZOaNOZ1sag . This fact enable me to release my BERNER garage door motor (my old motor from my ROR) and redirect it straight to George's observatory.

So, we hit the road toward George's home to the very end of March, when the weather forecast was proper for an outside job and when my own daily program and Matei's program  allow us to take a break.

The plan for those days was the following:

- to seal the roof better than last time

- to instal the motor for the roof (this was a tricky task, because of the limit imposed by the neighbour property, very close by the end of the rails in open position)

- to connect the power on the observatory (the lines were there but unconnected till that moment)

- to close the network cable  connection  (UTP) to the room where George spent most of the day (let's say the control room)

-  to make a remote controller using 4 wires from the 8 available in the UTP cable - needed to open-close the roof and start the computer

- to instal on the telescope the motorized focuser (based on ARDUINO and a stepper)

- to install the mount and the telescope into observatory, to polar align the set-up, to install the computer into observatory, to connect the set-up and the computer, to make all necessary tests, so on.....

There is Matei and George to the beginning of the first day of labor.

 

 

[jimao22]

Things evolved slower than expected but we did almost all the hard jobs until we leave the place, on Sunday morning. I made the installation and programing of the roll-off-roof motor, the roof sealing job, the motor focuser support and inserting the filters inside the filter-wheel (you'll laugh but this took me almost 4 hours because of the thread from the filter-wheel support - a typical chinese engineered mechanical part).

Matei did the cable route until the control room, the remote controller, the connections inside the observatory, installed the inside and outside lamps, the network connections. Seems to be few but it was a lot.

[jimao22]

And there you have the rest of the pictures of what we did till the end of Saturday night, when we finished the job...

Here is another link on my youtube channel, with the first test of working ROR - 

Working ROR - the film

 

 

[jimao22]

As you can see, the rail of the motor is totally off-axis but because of the smooth function of the roof wheels, it work like a dream. The motor and the rail are completely in the range of the observatory (the motor is covered by a yellow shield, against the rain and snow). 

[jimao22]

I should put an end to this topic because this is a finished job. The observatory is up and running and George made his first astro images by himself. There are not very good looking pictures and this is my fault, because I did not adjusted very well the polar alignment (1) and the focus and collimation of the scope (2). This is something I take care of it right now and in the near future, when I'll be back to George's house (300 km away, as I said), everything will be in place and working just fine, I hope.

Here you have a film with the condensated history of the STARDOME observatory (is the name George gave to his observatory when ready).

STARDOME observatory - the history and the results

Thanks to all who make this happen, in behalf of George !! 

[Stub Mandrel]

Well done guys!

[RobertI]

A fantastic story and a wonderful outcome for George. It's great that he can now fulfil his passion for astronomy. You have done an amazing job. 

[Alan White]

A very touching story and great example of genuine empathy and kindness.

Very well done to all involved.

I hope George is happy with his observatory and has enjoyment from his imaging.

 

[RT65CB-SWL]

I saw this post and replied in August 2015. I just want to say the observatory is coming along very well. Well done to all and sponsors that are working on this wonderful project. I have just watched the youtube video too.

Wishing George and everyone on the team clear skies.