2019 - Year of DIY Astro!

[Paul73]

Hi All

The New Year has seen me spending far too much time catching up on threads that I’ve missed due to an unforced ‘Astro Hiatus’ (the doc gave me some cream for it and the Astro lethargy has cleared up nicely).

As always, I’m left amazed at the creativity and handiwork of the SGL community. Soooo. I’m taking the plunge. For completion in 2019 (????):

1/ a Dob trolley to get the 16” solid tube beast from garage to observing spot in one piece. Only 30m, but two trips and getting the tube onto the base is an absolute pain.

2/ a wooden tripod and mount. Since selling my lovely Berlebach and Sky Tee, I have no means of Ha Solar with the 100mm PST Mod.

3/ transforming my 10” knackered seized  SkyWather Dob into a travel marvel. The MDF base got soaked in a flood and has refused to budge since. There is a good chance of a Namibia trip in early 2020......

4/ an obsey for home viewing with the 16”. Although early noises were favourable, Local government may decide that I have other priorities.....

5/ puting a decent focuser on the PST mod.

Happy new year. Hopefully I’ll be posting some progress...

Paul

 

[Charic]

If the seeing remains bad, you may just get some of those tasks completed !

[JamesF]

1 minute ago, Paul73 said:

3/ transforming my 10” knackered seized  SkyWather Dob into a travel marvel. The MDF base got soaked in a flood and has refused to budge since. There is a good chance of a Namibia trip in early 2020......

This I shall look out for.  So often I have toyed with the idea of making my 10" SW dob into something suitable for foreign travel.

2 minutes ago, Paul73 said:

4/ an obsey for home viewing with the 16”. Although early noises were favourable, Local government may decide that I have other priorities....

I've found that keeping the "other priorities" moving along helps to grease the wheels on this one.  I have a specific list (kept to myself, of course -- I don't need stuff adding to it willy-nilly) of indoor "brownie point" jobs that I can do when the weather is unsuitable for working on the observatory or when I feel that domestic harmony would best be served by being seen to be doing some things around the house :)  It does help that there is an understanding that completion of the observatory will mean that a large amount of astro kit will no longer be kept in the house.

James

[MarsG76]

Good luck.. I love DIY astro...

 

[Paul73]

First up. The prototype Dob wagon:

The idea is that the Dob stays on the cart and either stays on the wheels facilitating easy moves mid session - impossible until now; or easy packing away at the end of the night. The cart trundles along serenely with a full load of 16”. However, the current form is so wobbly that 20 mins of star hopping made me feel rather sea sick! The front jockey wheel needs to be larger for easier turning and some easy way of dropping the platform off the wheels should sort the wobbliness. This will revolutionise my viewing. It is no longer a back twisting risky chore to get setup / pack away.

Mk11 is on the way!

Paul

[Paul73]

Mk11 complete! Works really well. As long as I lower the front, it is stable enough not to have to unhook the back wheels.

What a difference it makes to be able to just wheel the scope out and start observing!

Next up is the secondary dew heater.  About 50p worth of resistor, a bit of cable and some electrical tape. Simples!

And, lastly a knocked together tripod to get the PST mobile again. An old AZ3 (PST is about its max payload) and some hacked about wood. Not pretty and needs sealing, but it works well. The most interesting part was learning how to do a “three way bend” to secure the streatcher cords.

That’s it for now. 

Next up is a 4 Way Dew Controller and then to make a start on the Berlebach slaying proper tripod for my 100mm PST mod!

Then the tricky stuff starts....

Paul

[Paul73]

As promised: theSuper 4 Port Racing Dew Slayer”. 

Less than £30 worth of parts. A couple of hours of swearing. And we have one 4 Port dew controller (need to tinker with the LEDs to get them calibrated but heating is spot on).

Getting everything into the 11x6x3cm box was the tricky bit!

Proper tripod next.....

Paul

 

 

[Paul73]

I’ve discovered why the LED’s aren’t working as intended.... I accidentally ordered FLASHING red LEDs........

Always test before spending ages splicing them into the circuit (x4). Damn!

New ones ordered. The unit works fine as is. I just can’t see which channels are on without getting the red torch out.

Paul