A slightly unusual observatory build

[LuckieEddie]

Today I peeled the pier (removed the cardboard tube former) and also removed the wooden support frame.

Quiet a few 'bug holes' but nothing too large, at most maybe 5mm deep. While the surface was still damp I gave it a 'bag rub with mortar. A reasonable start but more finishing definitely needed.

After that I've started positioning and wiring up the power supplies (12V for the doors and squome, 24V for the mount) and control system. I'm using an OCS4 as the controller, an open source project by Howard Dutton, the author of OnStep. I've also made a manual control panel for overriding the system if anything goes wrong. All cases were 3D printed.

[Stephenstargazer]

On 24/08/2024 at 17:52, LuckieEddie said:

, I know. I meant 12 noon UTC.

Well I hope you meant 12pm local solar time* for the meridian mark!  Eg 'add' your longitude and the equation of time to the mean time. I am a sundial user 🙂, despite the clouds, so used to such sums.

*I use that time to reset my moveable pier whenever it gets relocated,  quite accurate too. But the difference in Essex is not enough to  matter. You are doing a tricky job with great skill.

Edited August 26 by Stephenstargazer

[LuckieEddie]

I had a minor issue this evening that with hindsight was a good thing. While testing the manual rotation control I slipped with the multimeter probes causing a temporary short. This blew the protective fuse on my OCS4 controller. While hunting for my box of fuses it occurred to me that the manual control 12V supply should not be connected to the fused OCS4 12V. This means I need to add an additional fuse in the control panel and wire it direct to the PSU. Lucky I found it now during testing rather than later on when in operation. Even with no faults I would have been overloading the current fuse slightly so it would have blown at some point.