Ad Astra Observatory

The motor control circuit that I constructed for the dome has been working flawlessly for a year and a half, but it’s always been a bit of a proof-of-concept, rather than a 100% functional thing.

Now that the dome automation board is connected, I have a real idea of what the enclosure (or enclosures) must look like, and I can start working on getting it all ship shape.

Jr. Astronomer has been helping with the todo list, and there are some projects that she’d like to see completed as well; our motto needs to get hooked up to one of the desk buttons:

and an overall control scheme is still under discussion — I feel that we will eventually have several ways to control the dome movement, some going through the computer, some hardwired, but for safety, I want to make sure that I have at least open/close, CW/CCW, and on/off wired in and hopefully available at the desk.

It’s been a bit of a soggy fall, but it’s gotten nice and cold for the past few days, had a few inches of snow a week ago. The air is finally cold enough to get clear out, but the moon has just gone through full, so I haven’t been inspired to head out to the observatory for photos.

I’m going to see how much of the maintenance punchlist I can get through, while Jr. and I are both on Christmas break.