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My New Pulsar 2.1m Obsy - Finished :-)


Jkulin

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1 minute ago, Jkulin said:

Thanks Ray, I'm a bit apprehensive really as I just hope I have enough clearance for everything to rotate and that there will be enough room to fit a 10/12" Newtonian at a later date, thus the reason for raising the dome higher.

I have built a new computer system that will remain permanently inside the dome (rather than use my laptop), but again am concerned about the clearance for the OTA with gubbins to swing round with enough clearance. I did buy a curved monitor so if needs must the I can mount it on the wall.

Part of me wishes that I had gone for a RoRo Obsy as then I would never have a problem with clearances, but as my garden faces south it does get some savage winds hitting it, so the dome should help improve things.

Fingers crossed, John.  It looks like you've done as much homework as you can, so you must be due some good luck 🤞

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2 hours ago, tooth_dr said:

Hi John. Looks nice 👍🏻 So what height is the pier now from the wooden floor?

Hi Adam,

The pier was 1212mm high, so with the wall and floorboards in it will raise the dome by 23cm, thus reducing the amount of pier visible to 982mm, the important thing was that I gained an additional 23cm of clearance for when I go for a 10/12" Newt.

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Spent Friday and Saturday fitting the floor boards and then finished off just before the rain the flooring, which I had from ages ago, contact adhesive secured, now just need to do all the connections but need the rain to stop:-

image.thumb.png.cccfe5d35d6c3fd7973e690dabc7d03d.png

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23 hours ago, Jkulin said:

Spent Friday and Saturday fitting the floor boards and then finished off just before the rain the flooring, which I had from ages ago, contact adhesive secured, now just need to do all the connections but need the rain to stop:-

Very exciting, John.  Just need the lid now!

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18 minutes ago, RayD said:

Very exciting, John.  Just need the lid now!

Yep Ray, I'm almost ready this end, just a few more connections to solder up, wire the feed to the ASC, a little trepidation setting it all up as Steve has a custom Ascom driver and interface, so will have to get that established in SGP, will know on Wednesday when we travel down,

Here's a Video Steve sent me of the control working: -

I must make a compliment to him how well he set this up.

Edited by Jkulin
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5 minutes ago, Jkulin said:

Yep Ray, I'm almost ready this end, just a few more connections to solder up, wire the feed to the ASC, a little trepidation setting it all up as Steve has a custom Ascom driver an interface, so will have to get that established in SGP, will know on Wednesday when we travel down,

Here's a Video Steve sent me of the control working: -

Wow that looks superb, John.  Don't know what I was expecting, but that is much quieter and smoother than I was expecting.

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Cheers Ray, yep Steve is an engineer and has made a truly tidy job, he says we just have 4 bolts to undo and then separate the sealant from the Cement base, so I bought a couple of these which should help.

My Son and Son-in-law are travelling down separately in the Luton Van, so with a bit of luck we'll get it in in two pieces.

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Right picked up the dome from Steve today, what a smashing helpful person, really patient.

Can anyone advise, this might be a similar question to Adam @tooth_dr, but slightly different in that I don't have a GEM but a CEM.

So I believe I need to calculate the offset for the mount height, please feel free to correct, but as I understand, I take the zero offset from the base of the Dome where it meets the walls? Then I take a position from a midway point of the mount, or have I got that totally wrong, in the image below I am presuming that that point is where the middle red locking nut is on the Losmandy saddle, is this right?

If I have it wrong can someone advise is very simple English please?

Many Thanks.

image.png.345abcf182ae1ca050b69d8adb8a8084.png

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6 minutes ago, Jkulin said:

Just found this link which appears easy to understand, but is that correct: -

https://www.nexdome.com/single-post/2018/08/21/How-to-calculate-telescope-pier-height

Hi John.  That information appears to be used to calculate the pier height.   As you have already built the wall for the dome to sit on, then you should have already done this calculation, as this would have been used to determine the pier height (or in your case how much to bury your pier within the floor).

I've attached a document by Steve Richards (steppenwolf) which is maybe the information you are after, to sync the dome with the scope?

 

Glad to hear the move went smoothly.

Adam

SAN_132_HowToAutomateObs.xls

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Thanks Adam, I'll have a look at that.

Edit: - Ok As mine is a CEM any idea where I should get a (RA Centre), d (RA Centre Offset), t (GEM or CEM in this case of the Axis Offset) and finally h (RA Centre Height), @steppenwolf Steve can you point me in the right direction?

Many Thanks.

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With horrendous rain yesterday and today it has stopped play! 😞

Everything is sitting covered where necessary, I just need to clean up the old silicone and then clean and apply the Polytrol and then assemble.

We had hoped to get it into the Luton Van in two pieces, but sadly my interpretation of a Luton Van and the Modern day interpretation are completely different, we had to split the top and bottom in half, no big deal real as the silicone came apart with the windscreen removal tool very easily, I had to cut a Cat 5 cable to split the dome, but that is an easy fix.

My lads and Steve did me proud as I can't lift easily because of the c0ck up to my spinal surgery in January, so all I can do is get everything clean and get my lads round to help lift it all in place.

I've still got to resolve the offsets with a CEM Mount, but I have time for that anyway.

As long as rain doesn't stop play further, then I would hope to have it all up and running in two weeks.

image.png.6d51bd8f890939cc1b4a906afd07e8a9.png

Edited by Jkulin
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On 17/06/2020 at 23:20, Jkulin said:

Steve can you point me in the right direction?

Sorry, I have only just seen this! I'd love to give you a definitive answer on this but recent experience with a friend's 120 have proven to be very inclusive. It shouldn't be that difficult but for some reason, we have yet to get the system to sync the mount and dome together correctly. Now, it could be that there is an issue elsewhere in the system as his dome has never synced as well as my own but he's certainly having issues with the 120 now.

If it gets resolved, I will post up the solution here.

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1 hour ago, steppenwolf said:

Sorry, I have only just seen this! I'd love to give you a definitive answer on this but recent experience with a friend's 120 have proven to be very inclusive. It shouldn't be that difficult but for some reason, we have yet to get the system to sync the mount and dome together correctly. Now, it could be that there is an issue elsewhere in the system as his dome has never synced as well as my own but he's certainly having issues with the 120 now.

If it gets resolved, I will post up the solution here.

Thanks so much Steve for taking the time to reply, it is appreciated.

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Well today has been absolutely exhausting, I'm shattered.

I thought I'd spend some time preparing the dome and for the Polytrol treatment, after 4 or 5 hours of using C30 it wasn't shifting, so I have resigned myself after chatting to Skipper Billy to using a 2 pack Coloured Paint, which I will do once it is all up and running.

So the walls are now up, bolted down and sealed, the aluminium rails for the dome are all aligned, so tomorrow is going to be a big ask from my family to lift the dome into position, once secured I can then complete everything with regards to connecting everything up.

Topless.jpeg

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While originally offset south for my LX200, I needed  to centre the pier within the Pulsar 2.2M dome for my CEM120EC2. During commissioning I needed to make slight adjustment to the dome control GEM offset value to find the best alignment. 

To find the best setting I plotted the scope alignment to the dome slot by slewing the mount/dome to positions of Azimuth (every 20degrees 0-360) and elevation (10,20,40,60,80 degrees) using POTH in Ascom. While tedious, in the end I managed to get a good compromise where the scope was hardly shaded by the dome.

Perhaps one of the mathematical experts here can explain why the dome geometry model for GEM didn’t seem to work as accurately for CEM mounts. 

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47 minutes ago, Xsubmariner said:

While originally offset south for my LX200, I needed  to centre the pier within the Pulsar 2.2M dome for my CEM120EC2. During commissioning I needed to make slight adjustment to the dome control GEM offset value to find the best alignment. 

To find the best setting I plotted the scope alignment to the dome slot by slewing the mount/dome to positions of Azimuth (every 20degrees 0-360) and elevation (10,20,40,60,80 degrees) using POTH in Ascom. While tedious, in the end I managed to get a good compromise where the scope was hardly shaded by the dome.

Perhaps one of the mathematical experts here can explain why the dome geometry model for GEM didn’t seem to work as accurately for CEM mounts. 

Thanks for that, I'll have a play once it is all connected up, any chance you could do a screen grab of you settings please?

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3 minutes ago, Steve 1962 said:

Looking good John. Following progress with great interest. Wouldn’t the Polytrol sand off??

Hi Steve, Thanks, unfortunately after spending 4-5 hours with C30 and a DA it wouldn't budge hardly any of it, so after chatting with David (Skipper Billy) I'm going to coat it with a 2 pack from International Perfection and from the colour chart it looks very similar.

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Enjoyed reading that and will follow. I'm only just setting up my AP rig and 'scope is not here yet. Initially I am going for 'transportable'. Longer term, I'd like at least a permanent pier at home. I am in the midst of major hard landscaping of the garden which won't be finished for a while. I will give some thought to an obs long-term. 

 

EDIT: the predictive text on Macs can be very annoying...

Edited by Tenor Viol
Predictive text....
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We've had non stop but rain up until about 17:00, but finally managed to get the top on and secured, excuse all the white marks, they are mostly dust from the sanding, just a few tweaks tomorrow of the seams and then with some of Steve's help I can sort out the new Zero Position as I swapped some of the panels round so that the Bay was pointing away from our home and the door was facing straight towards the future path way.

The aluminium curved rails for the dome to rotate on were re-aligned because of the changes and the dome will almost rotate freely a complete rotation with a simple push.

The cord for the shutter has come undone, so I need to work out how to feed that correctly and fit a couple of stops for the auto cut-off, Steve was taller than me so he could easily reach, but it will make things easier knowing that the auto cut-off stops are working.

I'm going to redo the flooring as I want it to extend fully to the edges so there is no chance of dropping anything through.

Next jobs will be to resite the monitor, build a few custom shelves and my mate is coming over on Friday to do the electrics. I also need to site my flat panel and run the cabling for the computer within new trunking.

After that my only worry which is giving me serious concerns is the offsets, but will face that challenge when I am ready.

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Topped_2.jpg.9a409690c9ddf78407188afe5ab153cc.jpg

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