Ad Astra Observatory

All of a sudden, my mount is dripping with cables all over the place. In order to set up a full astrophotography rig (at least for mine), I need the following cables:

To the scope:
– Autoguider USB
– Focuser DB9
– DSLR power
– DSLR USB
– DSLR shutter control

To the USB hub / camera AC (all mounted under the north end of the saddle):
– Autoguider
– Mount serial-to-USB
– DSLR USB
– DSLR shutter control
– Focuser serial-to-USB
– Planetary Camera
– USB Hub Power (5v/3A)
– DSLR power (110v)
– USB A to the computer

To the mount:
– Power (24v)
– hand controller
– Serial control

To the focuser hand controller:
– Power (12v)
– Serial cable
– DB9 cable

To the power strip:
– Mount (24v power supply)
– DSLR (?v power brick)
– Computer (19.5v power supply)
– motor focuser (via some source of 12v)

This assumes that I’m not also running dew controllers, in which case I need to add about 3 or 4 more cables to the mix.

In short, it’s a mess. There is stuff running *everywhere*, and most of the cables are fixed length for one reason or another — I think there are only 4 or 5 “standard” cables that I could easily get in proper lengths (a couple of USB cables, a couple of power cables). The rest of the stuff is proprietary or difficult to source so I’m kind of stuck with the lengths I’ve got.

With Velcro and wire loom management, I can generally get everything to behave for a given telescope setup. Even so, every so often, I just have to take the whole thing apart and re-run everything.

I’d been hooking up cameras one by one to get things working with the new VM, but the DSLR was next, and that meant getting my act together again. So I spent an hour or so running cables and seeing if I could get the mount all put back together again.

I got the cables run, but I’m clearly out of practice — the mount looks like someone dumped spaghetti all over it. Sigh.

It’s raining out, so I have some time.