New rig - sanity check please

[stevepsheehan]

Morning all 😊 

Quick bit of background first; I’m 65, and following a stroke a couple of years ago, have lost most of the use of my right arm and hand. I moved to a new house, in a nice, dark (Bortle 2/3) area of Cumbria a year ago, and over the past few months, I have been getting myself organised with a “Todmorden” pier down the garden, now completed.  

Rig wise, I have been assembling an imaging setup, in the comfort of a spare bedroom, and before I go to all the effort of dis-assembling it, and re-assembling it down the garden, I just wanted to run it by you more experienced people, for a bit of a sanity check, and to see if there’s anything I have forgotten, or if there’s anything you’d recommend I add or change, prior to re-siting it, which will be quite a major undertaking for me. 

So, hardware is: 

Celestron CGEM mount, (hypertuned by Dark Frame) 

Altair Astro 115mm 805mm FL EDT Triplet, with 0.8x field flattener/reducer 

Altair Astro 269C Pro Tec camera 

Pegasus Focus Cube V2 

60mm 240mm FL guidescope, with QHY5-II M guide camera 

Dew heaters (to be added)

Black box between top plate and guidescope is a 12v power distribution box, that I made myself - 12v 10amps in, 6 x 12v out, plus connectors for 2 dew heaters.

All the above is controlled by an Intel NUC, (i5, 16gb RAM, 256GB storage), mounted on the scope, and will be accessed from indoors over a dedicated wi-fi connection, from my PC, using Windows RDP, though I do have the option to connect it to the internet temporarily, and plug in a monitor, mouse, keyboard etc. if absolutely necessary, once it’s in position. 

Software is NINA, and I have also installed Stellarium, PHD2, NINA’s Sky Atlas Repository image files, and the various ASCOM drivers. All the hardware connects to NINA OK, and appears to be working correctly. 

Mount will stay fixed to the pier, and the scope etc will be stored nearby, in a dry room, when not in use, though in times of good weather, it will stay outside, and get used nightly.

So that’s basically it – your comments and/or suggestions would be most appreciated. I’ll pop a photo below too. 

TIA 

Steve 

Edited December 10, 2020 by stevepsheehan
Added info

[Pompey Monkey]

This looks like an excellent start.  With all that thought and planning, it's bound to go wrong somewhere! (joke)

The only thing I can see that may cause you issues is the mounting of the guide-scope and computer to the stand-off plate. This could cause you an issue with differential flexure between the guide and main OTAs, especially as you are imaging at a little over 1" per pixel. On the other hand, it  might work just fine. If you do have this problem, maybe beef up that aluminium plate a bit. Double the thickness feels about right to me.

Basically though, you look good to go

[vlaiv]

I have slight concerns about CGEM mount.

It used to have well known 8/3 period error that was giving people problems as it was hard to guide out. Not sure if was fixed in the meantime. Apparently it is related to motor gear box and not the mount, so changing motor assembly could have been part of the solution.

[stevepsheehan]

Thanks guys.

Re the plate thickness, it feels rock solid, but I'm a dab hand with a drill press, so a beefier version is no problem if needed. 

As for the mount, it has been hyper tuned by Dark Frame, so those problems should be all resolved - I know Dave did have some problems in that area, and re built the gear box a couple of times to fix it; I guess time will tell 😉

Just need the weather to clear up now, but no sign of that happening any time soon 😞

[pete_l]

3 hours ago, stevepsheehan said:

Mount will stay fixed to the pier,

Have you got a weatherproof cover for the mount?

[DaveS]

If you can use a TG 365 cover (You say you have lost most use of your right arm / hand) then there's no need to bring the 'scope indoors at all, unless for maintenance. I keep one of my imaging rigs under one all the time, with an electric pet-bed on low to keep condensation at bay.

For dew control have you considered a Pegasus APB? It has temperature / humidity sensors so can calculate dew point, and how much power it needs to send to the heaters.

[stevepsheehan]

32 minutes ago, pete_l said:

Have you got a weatherproof cover for the mount?

Yes, it lives under an ex-army Goretex sleeping bag cover, all year round, but I uncover it whenever possible, to keep it well aired

[stevepsheehan]

55 minutes ago, DaveS said:

If you can use a TG 365 cover (You say you have lost most use of your right arm / hand) then there's no need to bring the 'scope indoors at all, unless for maintenance. I keep one of my imaging rigs under one all the time, with an electric pet-bed on low to keep condensation at bay.

For dew control have you considered a Pegasus APB? It has temperature / humidity sensors so can calculate dew point, and how much power it needs to send to the heaters.

Yeah, I did consider one of those, but I was a bit wary of leaving the cameras etc in place - you found no probs with that?

I've also seen people (well, Cuiv) keeping a bucket of dessicant under the cover too - but I havent managed to track down where to get one from. I like the idea of the pet bed!

Pegasus controller might well find its way onto my shopping list some time 😉

[DaveS]

Touch wood, no problems so far, and I've had it under a cover for a couple of years now.