Ad Astra Observatory

I am still working my way towards First Light. It took me a little while to get all the “build” info unloaded from my head, and to start being able to get the new shed ready to image, but a lot of the process is stuff I have done dozens of times before, so while I am getting the hang of the new digs, my body is working over the scope strictly on “muscle memory”. 

Saturday was clear and sunny, so with the exception of a short excursion to help inspect a friend’s beehives, I spent pretty much the whole day out in the observatory. I should have been taking notes, but I do recall that I spent some time collimating the scope, another process that drives me nuts, and that it was a beautiful, clear night, but I was so wiped out that I turned in at 10:30. Oh, I do also recall that I chided myself for not hooking up some kind of goto device while it was light, because one of the reasons I turned in early is because I was still manually moving the scope, and I am very rusty at star hopping. 

On Sunday, I got the iPAQ attached to the mount. It’s an old Windows Mobile Palm Pilot thing, but it has TheSky installed on it, and can control the NJP via its serial port, just as if it were a Real Computer. Another one of those “needed to get done eventually” things, and it was good to have a star chart hooked to the mount. 

Jared came over on his own time Sunday to help me get the 110VAC wiring started. This involved a short trip to Home Depot, as I had bought a couple of the wrong bits and bobs. He very patiently explained what AC wiring is all about, and we got an outlet or two roughed in, and the holes drilled in the observing deck for the pier power and data cables. Woot! I think I can take it from here. Maybe. 

A&C also came over to see the observatory, but it was unfortunately cloudy, so we didn’t get to observe together. Oh well, next time. 

Monday evening was clear again; it got up well into the 70’s during the day. The shed was super warm, but there is a very interesting airflow pattern that I must investigate further, a strong updraft, especially when the shutter is open, so it cooled off nicely. For the first time, I decided to hook up cluster, my venerable observatory computer, to test the USB cable setup. That turned out to be a bit of a hassle, involving two laptops, several USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 cables hooked up in various ways, finally leading to the conclusion that the active repeater in the 3.0 cable didn’t like being connected “backwards”, so I gave up on the A-B cables and ordered some not-so-standard A-A cables. 

While waiting for the cables to arrive, thank you Amazon Prime, I spent a couple of days trying to grok how to install Romex wire for the 110VAC outlet at the pier. I finally forced myself to just try something, and on Wednesday, I was able to break through and start wiring up outlets in earnest. 

I also decided, as part of the whole power cable installation routine, that the NE corner of the observing deck will house the battery bank. It’s a big storage area, but difficult to get to because of the position of the ladder and hatch. So, it’s a good place to put stuff you don’t want to move very often. 

I got a couple more outlet boxes nailed in place, and a few bits of Romex stapled down. It feels like I should be done roughing in the AC stuff in a few more hours. The DC stuff needs some thought, but all of it is coalescing nicely. 

With the ability to run the mount from a computer, I decided to try out a few gotos. That didn’t produce the most accurate results, but everything is a little wonky right now, so for the moment, I am not sweating it. I looked at Jupiter, M44, M67, and M51. The moon was a super bright waxing gibbous, and it started to cloud over at 11, so I just shut down and came back in. 

And so, one week after the scope went in, the mount is somewhat polar aligned. The scope is somewhat collimated. The rig is somewhat powered in a permanent way. And I have some computer control. 

First Light is going to have to wait until the electrical is in; I do not want to introduce the camera, only to cover it in sawdust. 

But I am very pleased with the progress so far.  

Goodnight, Hilltop O.