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Sounds very nice. Have wondered about corrugated as an alternative to the stuff used for conservatory roofs. Ensures good airflow of course.
I think the USAF observatory on Haleakala has it sorted. The roof opens and the circular walls are lowered to expose the whole sky. Don’t think I could make that work in our garden though. 🙂
If anyone is likely to be interested, but nothing will happen for a few months as we moved house in December and I have the new one to sort out (plasterer due tomorrow, new boiler next month, kitchen to rebuild etc) – theres always stuff needs doing. Thats the real world. 🙂
I have promised to post a first impression on the Celestron 11″ RASA I sometimes use. Tonight would have been perfect, but my poorly wife needs tea, sympathy and general looking after. Sundays forecast looks hopeful too.
It is sounding like a decent shed frame of at least 8ftx8ft dimension, with a clear plastic pent roof (possibly underlaid with aluminium foil) and thermally lined, preferably with a drop down side, is a hopeful way forward. I can always look at whats available commercially off the shelf and do some hacking.
9’6″ x 9’6″ (3m?) sounds about right I think given the size of that scope – or you would be hanging over the walls. I’ve worked comfortably with a scope and small foldup table in a 9ftx9ft. I am wondering if 8ftx8ft is just a bit too snug. But if I can set the thing up for remote use (30ft away in the lounge) would even 7ftx7ft be enough?
Separate note. Is that a MkIV Fullerscopes mount? They were hefty.
Thats surprising – one of our plastic garden stores does occasionally get condensation. You would think the plastic would have the same problem as the POD. Perhaps its borderline. I think I would take the precaution of lining to some extent – if it doesnt make the whole thing too heavy.
Yeah, some spiders must be very keen astronomers, they gravitate to optics. Rather like the family of earwigs that once took possession of my Fullerscopes MkIV mount….
Has been suggested here that wooden observatories are – at least while maintained – fairly benign environments, but that 8ftx8ft would represent a minimum size. Does that fit in with everyone elses views? I have found a 9ftx9ft shed usable and the circular Skyshed POD quite tight with its 2.4m radius.
Ah, that sounds familiar. A wooden shed I have occasionally used in the past does that too. Everytime you go there you have to spend time clearing webs from the lights and mains sockets.
It was the dryness of that which made me wonder why I put up with the POD’s condensation problem.
I’m thinking 7ftx7ft with a pier mounted NEQ6 and probably a Celestron 11″ RASA (can’t afford a 14″ RASA and mount upgrade) plus something like an SX694 CCD. Am not sure 7ft is big enough, but am not keen to throw away garden – the run off frame area is pretty much dead space in the garden. Also , I want to keep the thing as low profile as possible so it doesnt take over the view from the house – yeah, I’m not making life easy for myself.
Its a long time since I read the Arditti book, but I don’t recall seeing a ROR made of polycarbonate before. Nice. Is the sheet screwed on to the frame or glued? A material that light weight: I wonder if it could be hinged?
I have been wondering about recycled plastic for the roof to minimise the impact of weathering, but its pretty heavy stuff.
Thanks for that.
I have read my copy of Webb’s book several times and generally enjoy it for the style and language rather than anything else. Is that much the same with Smyth?
Its the original focuser.
A Starlight H18 and a Starlight filter wheel.
It didnt happen after we put some tension of the focuser. Besides which, we were fast slewing an awful lot, so the scope would go from near zenith to near horizon in just a couple of minutes.
We just installed a C11 RASA instead. Can’t use filters but it has a much wider field of view.
I’ve used a 10″ Altair RC quite a bit and found that once I got the tension in the focuser sorted out, focus seems to say pretty tight for several hours. We had a couple of instances where it changed abruptly during the night, but that was some time ago now and seemed to occur only with a heavy CCD.
I thought it was operated by a private company and processed by the military. Pretty difficult to make a high powered radar being turned off a secret, they aint exactly covert 🙂
Happy New Year
Thats a fun system. I wasnt aware of them.
The GRAVES system may be 24/7 but you can imagine it might go down occasionally for cable maintenance or software updates.
Saw online a mention of an upgrade in 2015 but nothing more recent.
Also came across an email address for someone in the French Airforce noted as a contact. I doubt if anyone will complain if you ask them. Ignoring you won’t cost them anything. 🙂 What do you lose?
• French Air Force – Franck Schrottenloher spatial.cdaoa@air.defense.gouv.fr
When you are content that its working well, is there any chance you could give a talk on it to the Shropshire Astro Soc? They are always keen to hear what people in the county are up to!
The C11 RASA and C11 SCT come in at about 32kg, with CCD and filter wheel, call it 35kg. Allowing 50% margin, ~50kg. Thats less than half the system rating of 109kg. Am hoping we are okay, though I would like to be able to slew at 1 deg/sec to keep up with things like the ISS.
A Planewave L600 would be nice but without a Lottery win…..
