Pardee Lake Obervatory

[DaltonSkyGazer]

My astro buddy down the road has been running that setup with the ED, it works very well. Don't know when I will motorize my Explora Dome yet, maybe next season. Congrats on the new accessory!

[AlanP]

The Drive Tracks did not meet up well. the pitch is 1-5/8", and my tracks ended with a 7/8" pitch at the last joint. So I ordered a 3 foot piece of Delrin from McMaster-Carr and laid out a pattern at +1/16" for 18 holes to make up the mismatch. It worked and now will rotate through 360 degrees without jumping out of engagement.

The Drive is 15 rpm, the Cog Gear has 12 teeth, so that works out to 180 teeth per minute. At 1-5/8" per tooth, it travels 292.5" per minute. So the Dome will travel over a full rotation in one minute. It does mean that small incremental adjustments are jumpy. But it will extend the imaging sessions for me, although requiring manual intervention. AlanP

[AlanP]

Well the track is "wearing" in, and I am getting spoiled by the ease of rotation. I had already placed a small mounting bracket at the front of the Mount for placement of a low lux Video Camera. While it works, I think a remote controlled light needs to also be added.

The Camera [with some small additional lighting] can be used from the house to assit in remote rotate steps of the Shutter, so I can quickly go back to imaging. I need only go to the Dome at start up and at finish of the Night's Session.

For those following my posted CCD DSO images; I have a FLI Camera coming in along with two Orion SteadyStar AO units. While the OSC Atik 383L+ performs very nicely, the FLI will add better cooling capabilities. the Orion AO will hopefully allow for much longer subframes. So if all goes well, improvements should start showing up in the images in December. And I should be well set for imaging at Home for some time to come. AlanP

[astrodave123]

Wow! I now have dome envy . Great setup.

Dave

[AlanP]

I remember when I first started imaging. Someone in New York had a Tool Shed available for his imaging sessions. The pictures he shared were amazing.

I shoveled snow off the brick patio to set up for imaging. The bitter Mount legs burned my hands, as I carried the Mount back into the House at the end of a session. And as I couldn't see Polaris from the patio, tracking was not available.

But things for you may change over time, just as they have for me. But you will be more prepared than I was, because you had Astronomy Forum to use as a Guide. You are so lucky! AlanP

[AlanP]

Here is an image of the DC Gear Drive with Cog Gear. Works well enough for rapid motion. It is unclear whether this type drive would work as a sync to Mount Drive.

Note that the LED Christmas lights means that it is always Christmas in the Dome. AlanP

[AlanP]

Recently, I added a multi-segment Network cable, that stretches from the Dome to the Wireless Router in the Living Room. It is a run of several hundred feet in length. With the Dome being on a raise Deck with walkway, the wire was strung along the deck and only travels a short distance on the ground, before raising up to woodwork around the house. So no trenching was required, and the wire is exposed for easy service access.

Since this wire was installed, the wireless access from the Sunroom Laptop, through TightVNC has been quick to link up and has yet to drop the signal. Response times are extremely fast and simple, with only a minimal consistent lag time. Requests for Screen Refresh have no apparent delay at all.

The one annoying issue is that once connected to the two Dome Laptops, the Mouse will jump down and right on the Laptops in the Dome. Obviously the effect of the communications with the House Monitoring Laptop. So I have made it a habit to disconnect the House Laptop prior to heading out to the Dome. Once the connection is broken, working directly on the Dome Laptops returns to normal.

I hope that this information can be put to good use by others, AlanP

[AlanP]

BTW, for any readers in the Michigan area, I have a complete kit, a twin to the one installed at my House, that is available for sale. A second option would be a trade for a SkyShed POD.

I bought the second ExploraDome to set up at my Cottage on Lake Michigan. But it will not pass DEQ approval for the site. A SkyShed POD is a 5-piece bolted construction, and is considered portable. So it will pass code.

As we are into Winter, there is little point in running a Ad now. But I figured an announcement of intent to sell might not be a bad idea, especially placed with a review of it's twin. AlanP

[DaltonSkyGazer]

Here is an image of the DC Gear Drive with Cog Gear. Works well enough for rapid motion. It is unclear whether this type drive would work as a sync to Mount Drive.

Note that the LED Christmas lights means that it is always Christmas in the Dome. AlanP

Alan,

Explora Dome does offer the sync drive setup, but this adds a nice price to the package...If I remember they were offering several package deals on controllers and such which can be integrated quite easily from the sounds of it.

[kwalker]

Alan that is one beautiful observatory you have there.
an excellent piece of work.
the scenery makes me homesick (ex yooper)
you can have the cold though