Category Archives: Projects

OSX fun with pkg-config and Xcode

Posted on April 23, 2017 by james

In the configure script for the release of oacapture that I’m currently working on I’ve made fairly heavy use of pkg-config to determine compiler and linker flags for installed packages and to check installed versions to see if they provide … Continue reading →

Posted in Computing, Projects | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

A mangled mangle

Posted on January 22, 2017 by james

Whilst clearing out the barn to allow space for the scaffolding, I came across the remains of this mangle, hidden away behind some other stuff that must have been there years: I wonder if they provided mangling services to Wile … Continue reading →

Posted in Projects, Random | Leave a comment

Barn roofing project

Posted on January 21, 2017 by james

We have a barn that I believe was at some point in its life used for threshing grain, though it shows signs of having been extended a number of times and may not originally have had that purpose: Over the … Continue reading →

Posted in Projects | Tagged | Leave a comment

Mark 1 Potato Cannon

Posted on January 20, 2017 by james

Search youtube for potato cannon and you’ll find loads of examples. My son was keen to try building one so we came up with a plan to build this one from bits of pipe we had lying about. It didn’t … Continue reading →

Posted in Projects | Tagged | Leave a comment

Astro EQ conversion of EQ3-2 (part 5)

Posted on October 17, 2014 by james

Once the RA motor mounting was sorted I started on the DEC bracket which is somewhat simpler, being made from a section of 4mm thick aluminium angle. Again there’s only one bolt for fixing to the mount, so the bracket … Continue reading →

Posted in Astro Equipment, Astronomy, Projects | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Astro EQ conversion of EQ3-2 (part 4)

Posted on September 12, 2014 by james

My new drills have arrived and I’ve now drilled all the holes for the RA motor mount. It looks a bit like a Swiss cheese. This is the “outside” face, with holes for the motor flange, the four mounting screws, … Continue reading →

Posted in Astro Equipment, Astronomy, Projects | Tagged , | 4 Comments

Astro EQ conversion of EQ3-2 (part 3)

Posted on September 3, 2014 by james

My pulleys and drive belts arrived today. I removed the grub screws and drilled out the 48-tooth pulleys to 6mm (from 5mm) in the lathe to fit the worm spindles and the 16-tooth pulleys to 5mm (from 3mm) to fit … Continue reading →

Posted in Astro Equipment, Astronomy, Projects | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Coronado PST filter mod for Atik 314L+

Posted on September 1, 2014 by james

In my previous posting about the mod I’ve done for my PST to move the BF5 closer to the sensor of my ASI120 I had an idea about doing the same for my Atik 314L+. I know this camera is … Continue reading →

Posted in Astro Equipment, Astronomy, Projects | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Coronado PST BF5 positioning mod

Posted on August 31, 2014 by james

A few days ago I posted about the problems with vignetting when imaging with a PST and decided that for me a solution might be to move the BF5 unit as close to the camera sensor as possible so that … Continue reading →

Posted in Astro Equipment, Astronomy, Projects | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Astro EQ conversion of EQ3-2 (part 2)

Posted on August 29, 2014 by james

I ordered some aluminium channel (1″x2″x1/8″) to make up the RA motor mount which arrived yesterday. I chose this size because there’s only one mounting hole for each of the normal aftermarket motors on the EQ3-2 and this would give … Continue reading →

Posted in Astro Equipment, Astronomy, Projects | Tagged , | Leave a comment