Whats your next project!

[blacksaltire]

just clocked thisTelescope Reviews: Easy wooden Crayford

on the cloudy nights forum being as how i'm bl**dy skint i'm a gonna make one !

[oshb5]

Was going to be a Battery box But just found a nice camping unit 12v thats fully rechargable

[oshb5]

Going to unearth the lathe from its cloth wrappings And start on some scrap ali first them will look into a smallish refractor to see how that goes

[Earl]

I have projects.

work out what to do with the 300P (i think its going to go Dob and be used for Visual at my Brother in laws Dark site cottage in the sticks.)

Make an Auto Guider up.

[Astro_Baby]

Get the next 'How to' Guide finished - I'm redoing my polar alignment guide plus a section on how to get a Synscan EQ set-up so newbies on here can be pointed to a guide that goes through it all the way the manual should but doesnt.

I also have 'How to pick a telescope - Part 2' to write based on a mini survey I did on here ages back but never collated the results.

Get the TAL-1 finsihed so I can test it out soon as so my youngest gets a nice prezzie for xmas.

Umm - thats it for now.

[Jamie]

I am in the middle of restoring/pimping a 6" refractor...

I will post some before and after pics when the job is completed.

[weega]

I wanna rebuild the mechanics of my 390mm dobson to make it more transportable in my chevrolet matiz: now to put the dobson in the car I need to bend down both rear seats...

ciao

dan

[Space Beagle]

I have a few things lined up after finishing the observation chair.

I want to flock my 200P, I have the flocking paper and the inspiration from others on the forum that have already done this, I just need to build up the courage to go for it! There's just something worrying me about getting in a 'sticky stuck up state' about it!

I would like to make a Dobsonian mount for the same scope - I like the look of the Orion Optics one, but it does seem too expensive to justify at the moment! Again I think a few users on the forum have already done this, so I will have a look see at thier ideas for more inspiration!

Can't wait to get my new Tal 100RS when FLO get some in stock (as long as the new ones they get in have the crayford type focusers!), so I can have a tinker with that!

Doc

[Nermal]

Next - and first project for me is a pier in the back garden. Narrow steps down to the garden make carrying a tripod down a pain. Would much rather carry a flight case with mount and weights in down

Then comes the new mount, then the new scope, then it's all downhill from there

[russ]

I have a few things lined up after finishing the observation chair.

I want to flock my 200P, I have the flocking paper and the inspiration from others on the forum that have already done this, I just need to build up the courage to go for it! There's just something worrying me about getting in a 'sticky stuck up state' about it!

Doc

I'm glad i'm not the only one. I've had the flocking paper since January 2010 but still not plucked up the courage to do the job. I have this vision of wrinkled and ruckled flocking paper with half of it overlapping and triple lapping. And then taking the ota down the tip because i can't remove the abomination from the tube.

[yesyes]

I'm currently building a light box from an old 14" laptop display panel using the panel's backlight. Just got my cut-to-size acrylic sheets delivered today. Will start my own thread once it's done and documented.

Next projects:

- buy a house and build an obs

- strip down my CG5 mount and re-grease

- set up auto guiding with my SPC900 and a 2nd finder scope

[eyespy]

Fit some dec and ra motors to my eq5

Fit a dovetail base plate to my 200p for my rdf

get some nice chrome adjuster knobs to replace the allen key ones for the secondary mirror:)

[John S]

Make a portable optical bench for startesting.

I got a pair of 10 inch mirrors of Fleabay and the first was marked 71 inch focal length. Extended a F6 tube and got it working last weekend and its great, cant wait for Jupiter.

Switched mirrors and tried it out last night, wouldnt focus. Messed about for yonks as there was no finder. Then at 2400 got serious and dragged the whole lot down the garden so I could get it on the moon. Neighbour swithced on her scurity light about 15 foot away which I ingored, Im good at this, one must as circumstanceds demand.

No focus on moon after taking of focuser and hand mounting the focuser.

Still no focus.

Got the mirror set up inside on the hall floor and did the shine a torch on the mirror and move bach until the torch motion is reversed then forward a bit for focus.

I started at 140 inches as with the first mirror then 160 then then at 190 inches it was in focus.

Halve that and its F9.5 Hmm a mobile test bench beam will be the tube I thing and a ladder to get to the eyepicec unless I fold it a far bigger project.

[haitch]

Make a portable optical bench for startesting.

I got a pair of 10 inch mirrors of Fleabay and the first was marked 71 inch focal length. Extended a F6 tube and got it working last weekend and its great, cant wait for Jupiter.

Switched mirrors and tried it out last night, wouldnt focus. Messed about for yonks as there was no finder. Then at 2400 got serious and dragged the whole lot down the garden so I could get it on the moon. Neighbour swithced on her scurity light about 15 foot away which I ingored, Im good at this, one must as circumstanceds demand.

No focus on moon after taking of focuser and hand mounting the focuser.

Still no focus.

Got the mirror set up inside on the hall floor and did the shine a torch on the mirror and move bach until the torch motion is reversed then forward a bit for focus.

I started at 140 inches as with the first mirror then 160 then then at 190 inches it was in focus.

Halve that and its F9.5 Hmm a mobile test bench beam will be the tube I thing and a ladder to get to the eyepicec unless I fold it a far bigger project.

Could make a great planetary dob given the long focal length (small secondary obstruction) and that planets don't get anywhere near the zenith (avoiding the step ladders).

[John S]

Yes thanks for the dobbo suggestion as its equatorial at the mo.

Getting to the eyepiece at height is at least bad for the neck and at worst falling off a ladder.

The planets are lower recently so a long tube shouldnt be a problem but collimation is suprisingly difficullt as long tubes flex.

[joner]

I'm building a 14.7" dob at the moment.There's another mont or so to go ...I hope .

[haitch]

Yes thanks for the dobbo suggestion as its equatorial at the mo.

Getting to the eyepiece at height is at least bad for the neck and at worst falling off a ladder.

The planets are lower recently so a long tube shouldnt be a problem but collimation is suprisingly difficullt as long tubes flex.

Maybe a truss would be better then but would need to be shrouded to squeeze every ounce of contrast. At least collimation isn't quite as critical at that f ratio. Maybe you could dig a trench to the North of where you'll use it to enable you to lower the scope and use the material to raise the ground to the South where you'll stand (You won't find any planets to the North)

[John S]

I have truss tubes and plywood routed discs so a truss is doable.

Losing collimation at different orientations is the problem.

Very near to where I observe there a wall facing south the other side of which is over a foot higher, so it might work, thanks.

[Nermal]

Current project is modifying a Philips Vesta Pro webcam to do long exposures. The soldering is probably the most difficult I've ever done - and I got my first soldering iron when I was 7 .

The difficult bits - desoldering a pin and soldering the wires onto it and others is done. Hoping I've not broken anything

Piccie with my thumb resting on the PCB for scale - using a zoom macro lens which is why it's out of focus:

[sbooder]

My Next project is to see if I can motorise my focuser; using the remote control motors from my now dismantled Darlek.

This will be fun, but will probably end up with me blowing the circuit board. I am going to change the little worm gear motors for two old CDROM drive motors I have from dismantled drives, and see if the circuitry can take 9Vs.

The remote works from a good distance and if it all works in the end, I will be able to focus from my shed when imaging.

Watch this space!

[joner]

^^ Grab the popcorn and settle in lads...this looks like a good one .

[beamish]

That looks like a great project Simon -keep us posted !!

[sbooder]

It should work in principle, but I wish I had a more powerful remote control toy to have started with, say one of those fast buggies, but one must work with what one has.

[brantuk]

I'm going down to the gym to build some muscles so I can lift all these flaming telescopes lol

[ncjunk]

Cor this will help to remind me what i have to finish:-

1. Finish the focus software so that it is tidier and stores the last position(it works fine but i keep having to load the starting pos)

2. Cloud detector, get my **** in gear and put it in the observatory and record the data for sky temp and amb temp (practically working, it reads the temp fine and stores it in a file, so close and yet soo lazy)

3. Motorise roll off roof

4. Rewrite ascom focus driver to cope with 2 focusers, cloud control and change to C from VB.

5. Attach mount to pier for first time...after two years of the pier doing nothing! Tidy observatory

6. Buy 1000d and make a cooler box for it.

7. Regrease the dec on the eq6...done the ra

Lots to do and i suspect i may be annoying George some more as we seem to keep doing the same projects!