Category Archives: Projects

AZ3 mount saddle and counterweight mod

Posted on August 14, 2014 by james

There are a couple of things about my AZ3 that I’ve never been happy with. The first is that it has fittings for scope rings rather than a saddle for a dovetail which is a pain if you want to … Continue reading →

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Revelation/Skywatcher SCT dual speed R&P focuser motor drive conversion

Posted on August 13, 2014 by james

Part of the reason for modding the Skywatcher motor drive kit to fit my Revelation dual speed crayford that I’d previously modded to fit my PST was as a trial run for doing a similar mod to the Revelation dual … Continue reading →

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Revelation/Skywatcher SCT dual speed focuser motor drive conversion

Posted on August 13, 2014 by james

Last year I modded my PST, replacing the “black box” with a slightly modded Revelation dual-speed Crayford that was originally intended for SCTs. I’ve been meaning to do a motor drive conversion for some time and had bought a second-hand … Continue reading →

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DIY dew controller

Posted on August 13, 2014 by james

I can’t take credit for this idea.  I had to bite the bullet and sort out some dew control stuff because my C9.25 dews up even if there’s a forecast for a clear sky.  A few people have mentioned making … Continue reading →

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Time for a new white light solar filter

Posted on August 13, 2014 by james

I’ve had a white light solar filter made from Baader ND5.0 film (two, in fact) for several years and one of them was starting to look rather tatty so I decided it was time to make another.  Baader’s instructions suggest … Continue reading →

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Collecting meteorites from rainwater

Posted on August 13, 2014 by james

Allegedly it is possible to collect tiny fragments of meteorites from rainwater.  The story goes that they can drift in the atmosphere until they get caught in the rain and end up falling to the ground.  By trapping the flow … Continue reading →

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PST imaging adaptor

Posted on October 15, 2013 by james

To avoid the use of a diagonal I turned up an adaptor from a piece of aluminium that takes the PST eyepiece unit and allows a camera to reach focus without a diagonal, so there’s nothing else in the light … Continue reading →

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Modded PST fitted to a dovetail

Posted on October 15, 2013 by james

Someone suggested to me that Munsen rings might be a good way to fix my PST to a dovetail. As they looked far more straightforward than having to turn some fittings from solid aluminium I thought I’d give them a … Continue reading →

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Red Dot Rifle Sight as a Finder

Posted on February 21, 2013 by james

One of my RDFs died recently. It seems to be something they do. Anyhow, I had a red dot rifle sight sitting around doing nothing, so I removed the mount from the RDF and cut a plate from a bit … Continue reading →

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August 2012 FIT payment

Posted on October 3, 2012 by james

At the end of August our latest FIT payment arrived covering the late Spring/early Summer period. Obviously given the weather this wasn’t as high a figure as we’d been hoping for, but means that 8.6% of the installation cost is … Continue reading →

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