Observatory clean up

 A little maintenance is required for the observatory, the roof has been sticking a bit lately and I have also wanted to connect the wifi switch module to control the dome movement from inside the house. After all I have had had it a few months now and just never got around to figuring it out.

Observatory Dome Automation.    

The holy grail for this seasoned and now somewhat lazy astronomer is total automation in the imaging process. Long gone are the days of lugging the heavy mount from the shed, desperately avoiding the cat and power cables as you carry the scope across the lawn. On bended knee with one eye open trying to figure out the hour angle of Polaris, balancing, connecting, aligning everything to no avail as the clouds roll in.

151a is now my forth observatory build and the most challenging.

Atop of my observatory I have a 6ft fiberglass dome manufactured

 by American Company Technical Innovations. It has a motor drive system controlled by 2 motors that are set 180 degrees apart around the domes edge. As this power supply is located inside the dome, control is only possible in the observatory. This created issues on a number of levels from pausing an imaging run, going outside and setting off the neighbour’s security lights, moving the dome and returning inside to set things in motion again. With a shutter opening of 60cm the scope has a limited field of view before movement is required when observing or imaging. Doing this every half hour is a little frustrating but what else could I do..

...........................

I follow quite a few Youtube channels following astronomers as they battle their own journey of learning and improving in their hobby. One in particular is “Astrobloke” an astronomer who’s interest is creating a fully automated imaging set up with his roll on / off roof observatory. Over a few months he eluded to a the possibility of controlling his roof by the means of a app using a simple wireless relay. A simple and cheap little box purchased from Amazon for currently £26.

MHCOZY Ewelink WiFi Relay Switch,Self-Locking/Momentary Timer WiFi Switch Module,Compatible with Alexa Google Assistant (4CH WiFi RF 220V) : Amazon.co.uk: DIY & Tools

It. seemed a little to easy to be true and sure enough he got it to work. So I thought I would have a go too.

A few months passed and convinced myself I could not make this work as the internal wiring of the power supply looked just a mass of wires and struggled with getting my head around what was what at what wire went where. So I stripped it all back and rewired sending a supply to the module and outputs to each motor.  

 

I downloaded an App EweLink and paired via the wifi and pushed the button…It works. After adjusting a few settings the dome moves by itself for 3 seconds whenever it’s needed to move. The next step is to automate this with a programme like Nina or SGP. Astrobloke now says he has developed with another youtuber some open source software that does indeed work via Nina so it is now truly intergrated into his imaging process. This is something I will certainly like to look at but for now I am happy and content with pushing a button every 30 minutes,

The next and final part of the project will be dome shutter control open and close but for now no more getting up, going outside, no more accidental triggering of the neighbours lights, Lazy or what..

 

 

151a A new observatory build.

I have completed my new observatory build for my new scope. I have created a series of Powerpoint pages to show it's build.

If you have any questions please feel free to contact me, Enjoy

 

As mentioned above there are a few small jobs to complete before official first light.

Fibreglass.

The day had finally arrived. I was not looking foward to doing the fibreglass. Have read a great deal and so many contradicting statements had left me a little unsure as to whether I wanted to undertake the task myself. A good conversation at work with a colleague and I felt much better about doing it. The plan really was going to be a little at a time. So here we go. Started off a little shaky by trying to press out the air bubbles to hard and spreading the matting across the surface, I ripped that piece off and tried again. Once you get used to what you are trying to do it was plain sailing. Overall I am very happy with what I have done. I give my thanks to the guys at J.W Morris Mouldings for their help and supply of a few gallons of resin

It has taken me two and a half days to give a couple of coats of matting and to help with a smoother finish I have laid the tissue paper matting on top. This pic shows the first of two coats of gel coat with the missing part at the bottom as I have decided to add the skirt after the dome is in position. There are a few lumps and bumps that can be sanded back quite easily. Looking good I think?

Before I can get the dome raised I need to get the main roller wheels on and aligned. Quite a simple job. The not so easy job was to align the lateral guide rollers to exactly 1800mm end of wheel to wheel apart and aligning them centrally to the structure so when the dome turns all wheels are in contact with the inner part of the ring. With these in place I waited for my neighbour Mark to come home as he offered to help raise the roof.

Slowly Slowly the work progresses

Managed to fit all my hours into 4 days of graft at work so I could have today off. Didn't start too well though having to take the cat to the vets. He has a scratched eyeball. 2 hours wasted, it's healing well nothing more they can do but I will charge you £38 for looking. As you can see I have managed to get the back panel on. Previous pics show some bracing pieces at intervals these provided excellent spacers to allow the curve to run smooth. I think it looks really good. Two gores also in place. These were much more difficult than I expected. I have studied other designs and they suggest using wall paper to make a template. Easy enough I thought until the wind took the first piece across the road. The second piece tore itself away from the pins holding it as another gust came along. Only to find when I did get a template piece and transferred it to the hardboard. Cut it out really carefully BINGO it doesn't fit. When you stretch the wall paper tight it stretches across the shortest distance not taking in curvature the that thicker more solid  hardboard needs. So I spent a great deal of time offering up and clamping a piece and trimming it until I have a good fit. Thankfully as the structure is square or round the template spun around has cut the gores for the opposite side. Before I picked the kids up I also managed to finish the corner gore. This one was really tricky as I can only clamp it from one side. Needed an extra set of hands to hold it in place against the rib so I could draw the angle directly on to the panel. Well I am happy with what I done today I think it looks really good. What do you think?

Miracle it hasn't rained today

I said yesterday I wont hold my breath for a good day. Maybe I did but didn't know it as despite all weather reports today we have not had a drop of rain. The wind is very strong though we are getting the tail end of Hurricane Katia. As you can see progress has been made today I have completed all the arc sections. Last piece to do is the shutter sections. There will be a hinged shutter piece at the bottom the will drop down when required, the sliding section will roll back to the backstop of the shutter opening there will be an overlap to stop the ingress of water.

You will see what I mean
when they are done.
But for now it is time to baton
down the hatches and try and
protect my work from the
unrelenting power of Katia.