Ga-Lun-La-Ti Blog

Well if I had known I could stop the drought by building an observatory I would have built it a few years ago, I swear it has been overcast or poured rain almost every day for the past 2 or 3 weeks. At least we were spared the flooding that others had to deal with.

I’m really itching to get back out there and test out my new piggyback scope and do some more work as soon as we get decent weather.

I got the main scope back together today with the new 4.5 inch and teh ETX70 piggy backed.

I had more work to do but cut my hand pretty bad trying to put the weather stripping on the door so I’m down for a few days.

I finally got the main scope (LX200) back together, well mostly so at least.

We cut the flocking material for the tube and then I started installing it. I quickly realized that a dark tube just got even darker when the flocking was installed and I couldn’t see anything I was trying to do. I got one piece in and was attempting to install the second strip of flocking when I noticed that I had accidentally touched my primary with the sticky side of trhe flocking. After a few choice words, I realized I had no other choice but to pull the primary and clean it. This is the first time in 10 years that it has been cleaned so I guess it was probably time anyway.

I got the mirror out and Laura helped me get the flocking in. It was still a pain but it worked better with one shining the flashlight while the other maneuvered the material into place. It is far from a perfect job but the tube is dark as pitch now.

We used Dr. Sherrod’s cleaning method to clean the primary and corrector plate and reinstalled everything.We remembered to roller the flocking one last time with one of those lint rollers to pull any last fuzz off before the optics went in.

Now I need to reattach my finders and piggyback and get the scope collimated. Then it’s on to getting a good polar alignment for once. My new 4.5 inch piggyback scope should be here tomorrow so I hope to get it installed and everything aligned if we ever get any decent weather.

Didn’t have much time today but I did get some stuff done on the obs.

- I installed white led light strands so I have some decent white light while setting up before and after viewing. While doing that, I figured out that there was a red wasp nest in the corner of my dome so I grabbed a can of foam and finished foaming the top sills. That should keep some moisture and most of the critters out.

- I also measured for my main OTA flocking. Looks like 13″ should do it so I should be cutting and hopefully installing those tomorrow evening. Hope it is worth all the effort.

- I think I have figured out a way to mount my ETX70 inplace of my current 50mm finder. The existing finder is kind of messed up anyway and I have a nice eyepiece with crosshairs that should make my ETX a really nice finder with the ability to toggle the flip mirror and use the LPI when remote.

- Did some more work on my security system and I’m pretty happy with it now. Not to give too much away but it has multiple motion sensors, live cameras and an alarm system. If they do get in, it will start emailing their photos immediately. I know exactly how it is setup and I tried to open the door and stop the transmit and I wasn’t fast enough even using the key and knowing where everything is. Since it’s wireless, they can cut any wires they find first and it will still work. I get the emails on my blackberry and on my home and work PCs. It also tells them in a really nice female voice that their picture was just emailed and that they had better leave. If that and the siren going off doesn’t do it then they deserve to be caught. All my stuff is old anyway so not like it’s really worth stealing. It would just be a hassle to rebuild.

- I cut my first piece of drive track and I think it should work. I still have plenty of work to do on the drive but hopefully I’m on the right track (no pun intended). I’m going to wait to post the details in case it doesn’t work. If it does, I have a really cheap way to drive these domes. If not then I will monkey with it until it does.

- I took the 120mm refractor off the piggyback bracket in preparation for the new 4.5 reflector OTA. It should have been here yesterday but they sent me the wrong item. I’m sending the wrong thing back and now have to wait until next week to get the new piggyback. This should get enough weight off the mount to save the gears and help in tracking.

That’s it for today.

I have been busy doing lots of little stuff on the observatory as I had a few minutes here and there.

- My pier was off center by about 3 or 4 degrees so I adjusted that and should have plenty of range to get a good polar alignment now.

- I installed another camera and some fans and a good set of speakers so I can listen to mp3s while working on the dome. I kind of like it quiet when I’m viewing but music definitely helps when working around the building.

- I got another couple of coats of rubber roofing on and a good fillet of caulking around the base of the dome. We had some heavy rain and it leaked in a little around the bottom of the ring. We’re in hurricane season now so hopefully this will stop that.

- I started flocking the interior of my LX200. Right now the corrector plate is off and I already flocked the cage for the secondary inside and out. I should be putting the flocking in the main OTA tomorrow and hopefully getting it back together. Then on to the gear cleaning, greasing and tune up. Oh yeah, got my Bob’s knobs installed too.

I should be running my USB cables and installing my hubs and power for the cameras this weekend. I also need to put in my door seals, more blow in foam in the cracks and cleanup my wiring.

I now have my drive motors and track material and the blanks I will be turning my gears out of so I need to get on with that. I did assemble my drive controller board and am awaiting a cable to test that.

All in all lots of little stuff coming together.

Not sure what happened but the pages on my web site got corrupted and I ended up redoing much of it. I have it all back up now and hopefully it will be OK.

Well I officially like this thing. I have been out viewing a couple of nights and am now convinced that this is the best astro thing I have done in years. I installed the PC and security system and some security cameras and have spent a couple more nights viewing. I actually got decent seeing one night and I saw more in about 30 minutes than I usually see in a couple of weeks. The best part is that I got in 30 minutes of viewing by only spending 35 minutes out in the dome.

I poked my head out at about 11:30 one night and it was really clear. Normally I would not have considered going out that late on a week night but I just walked out to the dome, got a quick alignment and was viewing in about 4 or 5 minutes. I saw several targets and had time and the comfort to take my time viewing instead of flitting from object to object. Basically, you lock the door behind you so you don’t even have to think about people or dogs walking up on you in the dark and all your stuff is close at hand. I have my fan and comfy stool to sit on and I don’t have to worry about stepping in fireant nests or getting bugbit. When I’m done, I just flip the switch, lock the door and I’m back inside in a couple of minutes. This is definitely a cool way to get much more viewing time with less effort.

I’m about to start hooking up my CCD cameras and get back to some imaging but I need to improve my pier alignment first.

I am also about to start installing my track and drive motors and then hook up my controllers. Originally I started designing my own driver boards. While poking around on EBay looking for cheap relays, I found a complete control board with relays for less than I would pay for just the relays themselves. The best part was that it was controlled just like my boards so I only have to make minor changes to my bridge code to make it work with my bridge software. It is far from done and tested but if it all works, I will only have about $200 in my entire drive setup for the dome.

That’s it for now. Hopefully I will get the drive going soon and will be posting some images on the web site.

Yep that’s right, this is a VIEWING update from the new observatory. I still have paint and trim and control work to do but I took a couple of evenings and did a little viewing. The seeing was far from ideal either night. We had broken clouds and a solid high haze both nights. I never did get a good alignment cause I could not see polaris but I aligned and synced on a few bright stars and was able to find several targets. The moon, Jupiter and M13 were the best of the bunch as they were bright enough to pop through the haze.

I can tell that I really like the observatory just from the little bit of viewing I got to do. It’s nice to go in and everything is already setup. Just flip a switch and you are ready to go. None of my equipment has to sit around in the dew and nothing gets lost in the grass. When I’m done, I just power off and lock the door. I can come back the next day and straighten up but I know that all my equipment is safe. I do miss the wide open sky views but I even climbed up my step stool and peered out the dome slit a while to satisfy that urge.

The dome is still not motorized yet although I’m working on that. In the mean time it is pretty easy to just push the dome around by hand. I was afraid it would be a pain to do that during alignment or anytime I switched to targets on the opposite side of the sky but it’s actually no big deal.

All in all, I’d say I am very glad I built it and I think I will get much more observing going forward than I have been getting in the past.

TODO Next…

I’m bringing up an old PC to put out in the observatory to run my CCDs and cameras. I have done almost no imaging in the past 4 or 5 years because it was such a pain to setup and tear down every night. Now I can set it all up and just use it when I’m ready. This is shaping up to be a great idea.

We finished the siding and roof at least for now. There is still a lot of trim work and painting to do but I decided to install the scope and get a couple of nights viewing to remind me why I did this in the first place. Hopefully, tonights viewing in the new obs will prove that it was all worth it. Then it’s on to painting, trim and installing the PC and control system.

You can see the latest pics HERE

Well it’s been a while since I had time, money and energy to do any work on the building. School and work kept me super busy and seems like everything that could break around the house did but now I’m finally back working on it.

We finished decking the roof and coated it with Henry’s rubber roof coating. I read several places where others had use that to seal their roof with good luck. I really liked the idea of a white highly reflective roof to help keep the temps down a little. We commonly stay in the mid 90s during the summer and hit over 100 most years. I have been reading quiet a bit about high temps damaging equipment so I was searching for a way to keep temps down without having to run an air conditioner all summer. I have to admit that it doesn’t look as nice as I would like but it does seem to seal pretty well and it is super white and reflective. In the end, I may tar paper and put tin over it but I want to give it a try first.

I also got the rest of the siding about half up. I hope to finish that and install my window and weather-stripping around my door over the next couple of days. Then I’ll watch through a rain or two to see if I have leaks and hopefully start moving equipment in. I’d like to go back and finish the interior in with paneling at some point but right now I want to get on to using the thing as the fall comes on.

No pics today but I’ll try to take some and post them tomorrow.