A Kentish obsy build

[Alan White]

So how has the Observatory progressed Ian?
 

[MultumInParvo]

Was just posting Alan, you are clearly telepathic! 

Work has been ongoing, but I have been posted first to Northampton and now to Edinburgh, so progress has been slow. 

I do now have a building and a sliding roof, although manually operated at the present. I have the materials to insulate the inside and clad the outside, but all in good time. 

The mount is on the pier and the power case is stood against the pier, and once I have completed the commissioning of the two SBCs that will control the automation and the imaging this weekend I shall attach that to the other side of the pier. 

My thinking is to keep noisy power and data separated where possible. 

Here are some pics of progress:

 

[MultumInParvo]

Slowly but surely, things are moving forwards.

The ED80 is atop the mount, focusser added, everything is hooked up and now testing from the warmth of my study over VNC where I can remotely turn the power on and off thanks to Ikea's Tradfri remote-controlled plug and google Assistant.

I have taken the lead of @Magnus_e and @Gonzo and am running a RPi 3B+ which will control the numerous gizmos and an Odroid N2 which will do the imaging and processing, and these are running Ubuntu MATE 18.04 with various Astro software on them, but mainly Kstars/EKOS.  This was all facilitated by Rob Lancaster's brilliant AstroPi3 scripts that did all of the clever work of taking two straight-from-the-box Single Board Computers and left me with two working Astro desktops:

https://github.com/rlancaste/AstroPi3

Once I am satisfied all is working as it should I'll drill some holes in the cases so I can tidy up the cables.

Left to do:

• Open up the SBCs for remote access and secure it properly
• Make a couple of boxes up for the usb hub and 12v power distribution
• Make a dew controller gizmo that can be controlled via INDI to save running the Hitec one that would just come on when I power up
• Install insulation
• Finish automating the roof and make remotely controllable via INDI
• Automate the easterly-flap-down-bit, although "automate" might be a bit grand-sounding for a couple of pulleys and some string that drops the flap down when the roof opens
• Find a better name for the easterly-flap-down-bit
• Clad the Obsy with featheredge boards or suffer the continued wrath of my better half
• Take some photos of things in the sky
• Learn how to capture and process properly, possibly with the aid of @ollypenrice who I contacted today

[ollypenrice]

This setup now rings a bell!

Olly

[Alan White]

@MultumInParvo

So a check in to see how the build has progressed Ian?

I am looking at a fixed pier myself now, but it will be out in the open,
is that 150mm concrete option working OK
 

Edited April 21, 2020 by Alan White