Category Archives: Astro Equipment

Robert Brown Arduino dew controller build, step by step #3

Posted on January 17, 2020 by james

I’m going to post details of the components I used, but before that some comments on the circuit board… The documentation provides a plan for building the controller on stripboard, which looks perfectly good (but you’ll need to add a … Continue reading →

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Robert Brown Arduino dew controller build, step by step #2

Posted on January 16, 2020 by james

Since it’s relatively easy, I’ll start with the tools required. I think this is pretty much everything I needed for the first build. Covering the easy stuff first, obviously there’s the soldering iron. It would be nice to have a … Continue reading →

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Robert Brown Arduino dew controller build, step by step #1

Posted on January 16, 2020 by james

In an earlier post I said I’d write up the build of my second dew controller, so if you’re not sure it’s for you and need to see how someone else did it, this is it. There are a few … Continue reading →

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Robert Brown’s Arduino-based dew heater controller

Posted on January 16, 2020 by james

Like almost everything in my life, this has taken a lot longer than I was hoping, mostly because I ran out of steam a bit, partly thanks to the weather being so poor, but also because it took some time … Continue reading →

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Adding the TSRED279 reducer/flattener to the Photoline 72

Posted on November 9, 2019 by james

I’m very happy with my little Photoline 72, but with a camera sensor of any size it becomes obvious that the field is far from flat. So much so in fact that it’s sometimes difficult to get Deep Sky Stacker … Continue reading →

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DIY dew controller

Posted on November 9, 2019 by james

As we get later into Autumn it is becoming obvious that dew control is going to become necessary for my telescopes. To do that for all my OTAs would be quite expensive, so I looked around and found Robert Brown’s … Continue reading →

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This is an ex filter wheel!

Posted on August 31, 2019 by james

I was having trouble getting my Xagyl filter wheel working with Ekos last night, partly because INDI fights with the serial subsystem thanks to both the wheel and the NEQ6 mount using /dev/ttyUSBn devices. I worked around the entire problem … Continue reading →

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More T2, Vicar?

Posted on August 31, 2019 by james

Setting up cameras on my telescopes has shown up a distinct lack of all the fiddly little bits of kit that you don’t think about 🙁 In particular, extensions to fit T2 threads on cameras, and male-to-male converters to fit … Continue reading →

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Skywatcher drawtubes are different lengths. Who knew?

Posted on August 30, 2019 by james

I have a focuser I’m unhappy with that I wish to upgrade when I can find a replacement I’m happy with, but as a stock Skywatcher R&P focuser came up for very little money I bought it to use in … Continue reading →

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NEQ6 guiding failure after meridian flip

Posted on August 30, 2019 by james

I’m using Kstars/Ekos to control my mounts and in theory it’s possible to set things up so the mount will automagically meridian flip if the hour angle increases beyond a certain value. Having seen it in action it does look … Continue reading →

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