A Typical Night's Setup at BA Towers

[BlueAstra]

I thought it might be interesting to describe a typical equipment setup at BA Towers each evening when the clouds part. I took a sequence of photos during setup to illustrate.

First step is bringing the scopes out to cool from the house, and the weights and cable box from the garage. I bring the scopes out about an hour before use to allow some cooling time.

Second step is wheeling the EQ6 from the garage on my modded sack trolly. This holds the tower securely during transport, and the big rubber wheels on the trolly (Costco) ensures a smooth ride.

Third step is to deploy the cables from the mount and the cable box. The mount has power, control, hub, Canon power & data, Guide Cam data cables. The hub, gamepad and Canon power block are mounted on the mount. The cable box conveniently holds all the power and data cables ready to connect to the mount and the control laptop, and the mains distribution board. Cable labels are a must.

The mains cable is unwound and connected to the power point on the wall. The USB, serial (and network-later) cables are also plugged into my through wall connectors. The laptop is setup in the conservatory and plugged into the wall connectors. Full scope and camera control from the warm conservatory!

Back outside the scopes are mounted and RDF alignment checked. The Canon camera & OAG are connected to the hub. A comms check is carried out for camera control and PHD control. I usually wait now until I can see Polaris for a manual polar alignment using polarfinder. I them set the scopes in the home position, switch on the mount, set it to PC direct mode and start up Starry Night on the laptop.

I connect to the scope and slew to the first alignment star, near the target of interest. The scope is usually quite close to the first star, so I nudge it in with the gamepad. I then mount the camera and do a precise alignment/sync using liveview and the EQMOD controls on the laptop. At this point I also focus the camera with a mask. A couple of other stars and we're sorted. Slew to target, find a guide star, calibrate PHD and we're off (usually about 45m after the mount is rolled from the garage!)

Disassembly is the reverse of assembly

[BlueAstra]

More photos:

[russ]

Looks a very nice setup indeed.

And a nice clean tidy garden

[TakMan]

Just like me you have a nice flat run to the back garden - and a tidy place it is too!

Thinking along the same lines with the plastic box for all the electrical bits too - mine from Wilkinsons for £4.99 (I think!)

Very elegant solution that outside network box..... hhmmmm, darling....

Clear skies,

Damian