This is a good quality product. I purchased the short 2.2m dome (with no controls or electronics) which sits on a flat roof. Just one thing to be careful of is that the supporting collars come as four pieces, and you have to be VERY careful to seal the vertical collar joins properly. So what does properly mean? Well in my case it meant a generous seam of sealer between the collars which squeezes out when you join the collars together. It also means particular attention to the lower part of the join. Again in my case, to avoid leaks, the vertical join needed sealing on the outside vertical and horizontal seams. It took me 6 months to find out where the leaks were. Also, if you're in an exposed location, the dome benefits from tape around its perimeter to stop wind blown rain entering at the base of the rotating dome. The Pulsar team are very helpful and supportive and after these water ingress glitches were sorted, the dome is working well.
I would really appreciate a video about the pulley system , how to install properly. To close it must go out and push it up and then I can pill the cord
Can you slave the dome to the telescope? If the mount is under the control of MaximDL for an imaging run, can the dome rotation be controlled by Maxim via ASCOM?
found this www.pulsarastro.com/pulsar-dome-drive-44-p.asp no idea how good the ascom driver is, guess its ok, its not so hard to program. For me too this is critical. looks like a very nice and useful piece of kit.
Just simply rotating the dome at sidereal speed will not keep the aperture directly in line with the scope - will it? I have a dome rotation system (for the Pulsar dome) designed and built by Tom How that uses the real time RA and DEC co-ordinates to exactly place the aperture in front of the scope. I am no expert in how these things work, but the dome rotation is NOT simply sidereal during an imaging session - it is especially noticeable as you approach the Meridian that the correction steps increase enormously.
The plastic chain looks like a weak point. In reality ice and snow conditions can make anything stuck and things can break. This nice observatory should have a real metal motorcycle chain.
Hi there, the drive mechanism itself, and the nylon chains used, are not a new products and are well tested (the drive controller was new when this video was made). Pulsar have been refining the system for some years now. The nylon chains were selected for strength and to be trouble and maintenance free. It may be worth pointing out that it's not a motorcycle and consequently doesn't have the high-torque motor and transmission required for a motorcycle. The drive system is just replacing the human operator, maybe plus a bit extra. I have the same but earlier chain drive on a Pulsar observatory and all I can say is that I've never had a moments trouble with the system and the dome with the older drive is located in Sweden and gets its share of ice and snow. KR RJD A&NTV
