Monthly Archives: December 2013

Spent some time Polar Aligning, had trouble so took a quick pic with the SBIG ST-i

Posted on by
Reply

Tried to polar align my mount finally and just had issue’s

I’m going to go back out again tonight I hope and try again.
after homing the mount I slewed to Rigel and it was nowhere near where the scope was pointing,  it was in the right part of the sky but was many degrees off,   this seemed strange,   I check my Lat/Long and date/time all where good.   went into the TCS control panel and reset all the mount settings and still no good.   after several hours and loosing all feeling in my fingertips I gave up for the night and fired up the SBIG ST-i (which I got as a guide camera) and took this shoot.   nothing special but at least the camera worked

 

Image Captured with ST-i

 

10 Light Frames @ 90s each and dark subtracted

First update in a long time

Posted on by
Reply

I had multiple problems with my observatory since my last post

first I had my mount taken over by mice who proceeded to eat through cables, pooh all over the bearings and build nests inside the mount.   after over 1K in repair cost.  (could have been over 3K but due to Bisques customer service it cost me 1K instead)

I got the mount back in place and found all three of my power systems failed

  • electrical failed from the house
  • solar failed,  inverter blew, which also took the charge controller with it,  replaced and then the battery was bad.  replaced then the new charge controller kept tripping breakers.   
  • backup generator would not run consistently
got everything fixed within the last few weeks and all three power sources are again working
solar though is only working with 1 panel instead of 2
got 240v@60amp going to the Observatory now
warm room is actually warm and things are starting to come back online for me
Got the PC and network back up and going.   used powerline adapters for network then put an access point in the observatory for wireless out there.
Updated all software
Clouds though tonight prevented any real work outside
hopefully soon