3.09.2021 Shutters, imaging and tail end strut.

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Friday 3rd 70F Cloudy start then bright and sunny.

Worked on the shutters in the morning. Imaging in the afternoon.

Awful viewing conditions. It took some fiddling to get any detail.

14.15. AR 2863: Rotation of the BF relative to the PST etalon improved results. Further experimentation did not.

14.40 Mush. Giving up imaging for the moment.

 

 15.04 Further rotation and etalon tuning. Heavily cropped.

While I was rotating the BF [and camera] I realised that there was some slop in the helical focuser.

So I found a square section tube of thin aluminium. It had once been the backbone for a TV aerial. Never throw anything useful away. I drilled two 8mm holes and fed the overlong, tube clamp, thumb wheels though the square tube. 

These thumbnails were already modified to replace the rust prone, Skywatcher originals. With the tube safely clamped in its rings I wound a loop of cord around the tail end of the filter stack and my new strut. This easily supported the typically long stack. If only the seeing conditions would support the images I was hoping for! 🙄

The cord loop is rather crude and will only support the filter stack after lunch. [i.e. After the meridian flip.] 

For morning imaging sessions I will need a ring on a threaded rod. It is remarkably difficult to get far enough away, in a 10' dome, to photograph such a long instrument.

17.52 Back to late imaging. The seeing has settled but is not very transparent.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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