Ad Astra Observatory

The march towards First Light is moving slowly, but steadily. I find myself torn between wanting to get things buttoned up out there, and knowing that it will be there for awhile, and not wanting the lethargy of inertia set in.

I would like to really get using the scope; we finished the observatory just in time for the weather to start turning really nice. But there still feels like an almost vertical wall of stuff that needs to get completed before I feel like it’s “ready”.

My main focus right now is getting the building all wired up; currently, I am using an extension cord for 110VAC and hardwiring to the battery for 12VDC.

On Friday, the new USB 3.0 A-to-A cables showed up, and on an initial test, they worked perfectly. So now the USB data path is run from the pier to the desk, and I just need the outlet boxes installed to be done with that.

On Saturday, I pulled dome control switch wires from the observing deck down to the desk. The cable ends are labeled and have spade connectors attached, but they are not hooked into the control box yet, because I started getting confused about where things will be hooked up permanently, so they are ready when I need them, but are just wired through the walls for now.

On Saturday evening, it was beautiful and clear, so I spent some time under the stars once the sun went down. My first job was to refine my polar alignment. This involved a short amount of time spent at the polar scope, and then quite a long run in WCS. Doing the webcam alignment is very satisfying, and it allowed me to also refine the finderscope pointing, which helps.

By the time I was done with WCS, it was getting pretty late, and I had the webcam installed and focused, so I decided to look around for a planet to work on. I spotted an interesting yellow star, and lo and behold, it was Saturn, finally high enough above the horizon for me to see. I was able to get Saturn centered and focused and Barlowed, etc. and shot a really terrible image of it. It’s really horrid, so I am not posting it.

The evening’s work started to get more of the software suite up and running; Craterlets for capture and Registax for stacking. I feel like I’m getting closer and closer to being ready to attach the DSLR, but I know that adds a rather hefty set of equipment and software requirements, so I’m avoiding it for the moment.

I am concerned about my ability to collimate Trixie; the autocollimator and laser and Cheshire and star test all seem to give different results, which makes me worry (again) that I have some mis-centered optics or something. I need to do a star test with the artificial star, and hopefully sort that out once and for all.

Also, the balance is a little wonky on the scope; it’s super sensitive because it’s so heavy. I wonder if I should put Pumpkin on the upper rail, to help balance things out…

On Sunday, Cliff (my father-in-law) came over to help get the electrical wiring started. He hooked up the 2-gang outlet box at the pier, and one of the 3-gang boxes at the desk. While he was doing those, I pulled Romex into the rest of the boxes in the lower area. I pulled wires to the places where the “outside-pointing” boxes will be, but I put in “placeholder” boxes, facing inwards, so that I could pull wires to the correct spot, without cutting holes in the walls.

Late in the day on Sunday, Cliff and I looked at starting to put in ceiling light fixture boxes, but we didn’t get very far; hooking up the three-way switches will take a little thought. I also installed outlet boxes in the observing deck, so that I can pull Romex up there, and hopefully get the pier outlets hot soon.

With the AC power install proceeding, I find that I am pretty stuck on the DC power distribution. I know where I want to put the batteries, but I am not certain how to terminate the wires. It seems like I want it to be a little more “modular” than the AC wiring; I could terminate everything in spade connectors and call it a day, but plugging in new gear would get tedious.

Each “outlet” has solder cups, which can only take very small wires; I worry that I can’t pass the amps I need to pass. It seems like I should have a power bus somewhere, for later expansion — can this be inside an outlet box? Does everything have a “homerun” to somewhere? to where?

So, by the end of the weekend, I had lots of outlets to wire. There is still quite a bit of sawdust around, so I don’t really want to start pulling out the sensitive electronics and optics quite yet.
I need to install the boxes for the light fixtures, and pull Romex to them. Cutting the external holes needs to happen at some point, too.

And, in actual telescope land, cleaning the mirror, re-spotting the mirror, and possibly refiguring seem like they are in the near future.