Category Archives: Astronomy

Building an observatory. Construction #77

Posted on June 25, 2019 by james

I took a detour on the way home from swimming to pick up some trunking and a few other electrical bits from Screwfix. Despite the twenty minute plus journey I was still sweating profusely after swimming which was a bit … Continue reading →

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Building an observatory. Construction #76

Posted on June 25, 2019 by james

Whilst I was fossicking around in the workshop this week I came across about 15m of armoured cable that looked entirely suitable for running the power from the beer shack (which will have power connected from the house) to the … Continue reading →

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Building an observatory. Construction #75

Posted on June 18, 2019 by james

Another quiet week, but I did at least dodge the rain and spend some time fitting a lock to the outside door on Saturday. I now need to fit handles and, as the only spindle I had was clearly going … Continue reading →

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A second observatory

Posted on June 13, 2019 by james

Yes, yes, I know… I’ve not finished the first one yet. But this is just a bit of preliminary planning. This week we’ve had a new track put in to reach the barn we’re having converted to a holiday home: … Continue reading →

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Building an observatory. Construction #74

Posted on June 11, 2019 by james

Progress is still slow whilst I wait for more bits and pieces to arrive. I’ve ordered an HP EliteDesk Mini to try out as a “pier-top” machine and weatherproof boxes for each pier which will contain most of the electrical … Continue reading →

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Building an observatory. Design #8

Posted on June 4, 2019 by james

So it comes to that time when I need to think about power. In particular 12V (or 13.8V) power to the piers to supply most of the kit that will be on them. Initially my thoughts were to have a … Continue reading →

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Maplins XM21X PSU failure

Posted on June 4, 2019 by james

I’ve used a couple of these power supplies for a few years for powering my NEQ6 and HEQ5 telescope mounts, but recently one of them just stopped working. It has been sitting in the workshop for a fair while waiting … Continue reading →

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Repairs to a cheap illuminated reticle eyepiece

Posted on June 4, 2019 by james

Hopefully when the sky is next clear at night I can get around to polar aligning my mounts, but before that I wanted to align the finders and main telescopes so I dug out an illuminated reticle eyepiece that I … Continue reading →

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Building an observatory. Design #7

Posted on June 4, 2019 by james

An addendum to my previous design post. The builder dropped the motor units off for the stair lifts that he thought might be butchered to make an automated roof mechanism. This first is the lighter weight one for the rack … Continue reading →

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My first meteor image

Posted on June 4, 2019 by james

Ok, so this was accidental, but I’m sure it counts 🙂 I found it whilst reviewing frames for my last star trails image. I’d seen a meteor that night and wondered if it was caught on camera, but didn’t initially … Continue reading →

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