Automated Dome?

[hughgilhespie]

Gosh - do cars have oil in them? That would explain a lot................

But more seriously, it isn't actually that difficult and this forum is a goldmine of good advice.

Regards, Hugh

[steppenwolf]

Quote

If I get the dome rotation motor, will that be good enough to set in motion and then leave for an hour or three with it tracking happily enough to allow my scope to see the right bit of sky?

That would be a great start, Gav and it was my original intention to do just this using a battery powered hand drill with a cam belt toothed pulley on it mounted in the dome section with a ring of Subaru Impreza cam belts attached to the wall section or the other way round depending on the dome design in use! I, err, got a little bit carried away and went the whole hog though - but it was (is) fun ..........

[Pickwick]

I considered a ROR but with a small garden went for the Pulsar Dome, I picked up a 2.7 m demo version with both the shutter and rotation unit instaled, there were one or two teathing problems resolved by Pulsar who are quick to respond to requests for help. I can control the dome from my lap top and also from the control unit. The hightecAstro weather delux own software will report rain and cloud. I sent my control unit back to Pulsar for a modification of the control unit with an additional socket. This enables the rain sensor to close the shutter without the need for any computer using a relay. I could at my time in life gone for a DY set up but time is to short for that.

Sky X Planitarium  will steer the telescope to any point but you will need to move the dome separatley using the Rigel software.

Currently, I am considering adding dome control to SKY X  already with T Point modelling

Hardware: Astro-Physics 900 mount, Beacon Hill 152 mm refractor, Tak 85 top mounted, Loadstar & SX camera plus Nikon 810A.

Software: Maxim DL 6, Pix insight, Astrometrica, AIP4WIN.

Results on BAA members web site.

Cheers

Pickwick

 

 

 

[PhotoGav]

Sounds good Pickwick. In the end I went for a fully automated Pulsar 2.2m Dome. It was installed in the summer of 2016 and I absolutely love it. Every penny was well worth it! I use SGP to control everything, which generally works brilliantly. Though reading through this thread, the point about the most difficult bit being to get all the various bits of software to talk to eachother successfully really is the most difficult bit!

I wish you clear skies and plenty of time to use the dome.