Certainly not, looked in the mirror a couple of times and said, you must be mad lol. To be honest I am loving it even though it is hard work. Its really taking shape now so not too long before I have it built and working.
@@Astrobloke Your image of the Ghost Nebula from your half-built observatory is great so I'm looking forward to the next one when you are fully up and running.
Thanks James. So many considerations and trade offs but happy with mt decision. It did come out very well for such short integration, will add more when I get a chance. Clear skies
Enjoying your construction hints and following your progress. I’m from the UK but live in Utah and this week got my foundation poured. Keep up the videos and look forward to seeing progress.
Hi Martin. How are those skies in Utah? where in the UK are you from? Glad to hear you are building an obsy, really makes a difference for this hobby. clear skies
@@Astrobloke Hi - I am at about 5,000 feet (1300m) so transparency is very good - mountains cause turbulence, but half an hour away is v v dark. From Newbury Berks, helped form that club many moons ago - also a long standing BAA member. Have built 4 previously, this one will be the best one! 16x12 and 3 piers - enjoyable to see so many joining the craziness ha!
Hi Ron and thank you. I have had a little test run and it was a real joy. I know it will be a magical space once finished and really looking forward to it.
Great video Glenn, its really coming along nicely mate, got some great ideas there! It is hard work but worth every minute! You’re warm room is looking fantastic, I can’t wIt to come over and have a coffee and imaging session with some dark side of the moon playing on the record player😀 Excellent image as always! Clear skies mate👍
I am so glad I found the Astrobloke sight. This is a most excellent step-by-step how to make a neat Observatory. It is rewarding and fun to see ideas come to life. 😎 Thank you.
Thank you Nik. I can see the end in sight. It has been a crazy amount of work but have enjoyed getting stuck in. Will be so nice to kick back and relax in the space I have built, looking forward to that a lot.
Hardy Board is a great alternative to the once used asbestos board for cladding and soffits. It has almost the same fire retarding specs - at least the one I used was cement/wood cellulose matrix (not with plastic!). Maybe a slight (5deg) pitch on the roof would be a good idea for water and snow melt run off - just a thought. A rubberised roof is great too - same material as used on RLNI dirigible rescue boats.
Thank you cor watching and commenting. The cladding is a lovely finish and will last and give very good protection. I will be adding a slope on the flat roof, mainly for rain as snow is a very rare occurrence for us where we live. The rubber roofs I think look quite nice too.
@@woody5109 the eq6 will handle an 8” with ease. I am a huge reflector fan and love the images they get. What are your reservations and why you are not sure?
@@Astrobloke Getting there, measuring the interior for the timbers and working out bolt sizes etc. The scary bit is cutting off the roof. How did you find cutting the plastic on your old one?
It's getting closer!! I think that is a good decision to go with a roof height to fit the home position. It gives a lot of peace of mind when you are getting NINA to shut the roof at the end of a session and the extra wall height will be that extra bit of wind protection. My two scopes can sit in the home position easily when the roof closes... however... since I converted to the side by side setup, it just pushed things a tad higher and now the roof would hit the Meade 10" dew shield so that's something to work on. Great image of Ghost Nebula and I think you are definitely on to something there with OSC cameras and dark nebula - processing mono of these targets is a bit of a pain.
It certainly is mate. I totally agree mate and to be able to leave it running knowing no matter where the scope goes the roof is never an issue is a nice thought. I agree that dark nebula and mono is certainly challenging when editing. I got a great image of the dark shark with my 2600mm but I had loads more data. I really want to take that target again with this set up and see how it fairs. take care mate and clear skies
It's all coming along nicely mate I bet you're chomping at the bit to get it all finished, I hear you about having the scope in the park position I had to set mine up due to the height & opening & shutting the dome & one thing I learnt the other night is don't shut the dome when slewing to park or you could rip the camera from the RASA, luckily no damage was done but an idiot moment from myself. Love the image at the end to mate bet you were glad to be out again even after the Gremlins as we all have those, all the best & clear skies.
Hi Tich you know lol. I deliberated over it but its best to be that way as then no danger of mishaps. With gear this expensive its wise. Glad you got away with it and I am sure lesson learnt. The image was surprising for just 4 hours but these bortle 4 skies help a lot., was lovely to finally get the CT10 on them even though the gremlins tried to spoil the party.
Hi Chris and thank you for watching and commenting, glad you like the content. I am originally a South London boy but started this hobby and my youtube when livi g i. Southend on sea essex. End of last year we moved to Suffolk in the countryside where we now have space and darker skies. Moved from a bortle 6+ to a good bortle 4.
Beautiful work you are doing Glenn, good choice to go for the Hardy Board, I have used it also in the past and it is great to work with with and has a beautiful finish. Hope you have some good weather coming your way for the build, here is Belgium it's really bad. I had one clear night for the last eight weeks and it was windy, so lot of my subs weren't usable. Great image of the Ghost Nebula, not an easy target to capture, well done ! I also am looking for another camera to use on my Edge8 at f7, the 2600 MC doesn't perform well in my opinion on that setup.
Thank you Siegfried, the cladding looks really nice and will give it a very nice finish that will be very long lasting. Weather has been very mixed here too but doesn't sound as rough as what you have been having. The 2600 is a great sensor so surprised it is not giving you good results. F7 I am assuming thats with the reducer so you are around 1400mm. How long do you push your subs? Depending on your Light pollution because of that F7 speed you may need to try and push further than you are. Have you tried binning? just to see if it helps at all?
@@Astrobloke Thank you Glenn for the tip, yes I was thinking of trying binning the next time, and yes it's about 1400mm at f7 (setup for galaxy season.) The asi2600 MC performs outstanding on my Esprit 80 and Esprit 120 with an without reducer. It seems it has it harder on the 8" Edge reduced. As I do the calculation than I am slightly over-sampled but I didn't think it would be so bad. If I would get a few clear nights to try some things, but those are so rare this year. Well hope it will get better, as it is now it only can get better 🙂
This was the motor I bought Arnstein amzn.to/3Akj2IT I haven't had a chance to test it yet but hoping it will be an improvement over my last one. If its still too fast or jerks at all I will add another capacitor to help control it better.
Its coming on nicely Glen ,I wouldn't worry too much about the hight of the walls because the seeing conditions below about 20 degrees are poor , how high above the horizon would you normally stop imaging at ? , very nice finale image Glenn, thanks for taking the time to make these videos mate
Hi Tony. I agree with that and that was also in my considerations. 30deg and above is around my normal imaging range. I have plenty of sky to play with so all good. I always have the option of my mobile rig that I can take down the end of the garden and could actually shoot lower than 20Deg if I wanted. Really appreciate you taking the time to watch and comment, your support makes the videos worth the effort
@@AstroblokeHi Glenn it's my pleasure to watch and comment on your videos mate, you and a few other channels are my lifeline to Astronomy and Astrophotography until I finished building our house and I have more time and money to setup my own rig and obsy, until then it's a Nikon camera and lens and RU-vid lol clear skies mate
I have mount park sensors and then a back up IR beam (independent) of the observatory PC. That way the roof still does not close when the scopes are up. Still have nightmares about this issue, but after three years, they are less often 😀
That would be exactly the route I would have taken but then decided to have the roof clear no matter the position, Just means no bigger scopes (never say never hey? lol) Once I weighed up all the considerations like the trees and extra wind protection I think I have gone the best way for me. Just got to get it all working again now. Not long to go, clear skies
@@Astrobloke yeah, fully understand. In my case there was on choice, due to the limited space and having to clear the house for PA. My next observatory however…….
At the beginning of the video with you standing next to the mount, is it worth looking to see if you can add an additional retractable part of the side of the building on the east aspect such as a hatch or opening? Looks like you have a fair bit of clear sky between the top of the beam and the hedge. Perhaps not much but might mean you can track a target sooner on the right hand side of the trees on the east and then over the top?
I did look at that but its kind of deceiving what you see from the video. There are powerlines that way too. I have had a good look and the gain is so minimal it isn't really worth all the extra work but thank you for mentioning it. It really helps that people suggest things and it helps me decide what directions to take.
@@Astrobloke You are doing an awesome job! Really enjoying the series so far and great inspiration for both the build and the mods to the scopes! Cracking channel!
Based on my recent experience invest in a "Peppermint spray", I had to strip down my SCT to remove cobwebs inside the tube, God knows how the Spider got inside!
Hey Glenn, looks like we got the same gate opener. I have extended my limit switches like you mentioned. The switch is just a circuit board with the reed switches soldered in, I soldered the extensions directly to the board, works like a charm, I'm getting ready to install the Arduino and I'm thinking instead of buying new switches for the Arduino, just soldering another lead on the existing board pads and running the wire to the Arduino. Should close the circuit, right? Any thoughts? Thanks
Hi and thank you for messaging. I tried using the built in inputs for the open/close signals from the limit magnets but unfortunately the communication to the Arduino didn't work properly. It behaved like it does if you use the wrong switches. i accidentally used normally open instead of normally closed and the roof would work but then either just open or refuse to close after a few moves. Something with the signal it gets either works or makes it behave irregularly. It would be great if you could just use the same signal for the limit stops and if you manage to get it to work please let me know as would be very interested. Clear skies
@@Astrobloke thanks Glenn, I have no issue buying more switches but I thought if it worked it would be great. I'll give it a go and if I have any luck, or no luck for that matter, I'll let you know. The wire and servo connectors I ordered will be in tomorrow. If I get it to work I'll load the video on my channel and tag you here or on FB in the ROR group. Thanks again for taking the time to reply.
@@Astrobloke Our(US) treated usually has a color either green or brown. Sill plates here are the wood on the concrete forming the bottom plate of the wall (?noggins?). ((Place the perambulator in the boot while I have a fag on the Chesterfield)). Yep, American is not English!
Hi Glenn Looking really good - thanks for sharing. Can you tell me what the make of your new motor for the roof is please. After watching both you and Simon’s excellent videos I decided to have a go at building my own. Kind regards James.
@@Astrobloke Thanks for your help Glenn - just ordered it. Not anywhere near ready for it yet but thinking ahead. I hope you have a great weekend. Clear skies. Take care mate.