5.11.2021 Imaging through cloud. Base ring completed.

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Friday 5th 36F, bright start but with rapidly increasing cloud from the NW.  Two ARs in northern hemisphere. Small spots with large filament AR2891 [W] and one larger spot AR2893.[more central.]

10.27 [CET] 44F, optics dewed. Hair drier. First image. PST etalon awry. AR2891.

10.50 All but overcast. Only a few, small, blue gaps. Is the new dome beckoning?

I removed the very wet tarpaulin to allow some air to the woodwork.

11.10 Fast moving cloud clearing again. Short lived.

11.40 Brief clearing. AR2891. Tiny spots beside a large filament. Not all of which is visible in this image.

 

 

 11.40.42  AR2893. ImPPG reset to remove over-sharpening.

 

 11.41 A slightly more even variation of AR2893.

12.30-13.00  52F I used the cloudy periods to prepare the last, short arc of the base ring. Then I glued, clamped and screwed the arc into place. The base ring is now completed. As a triple layer of 12mm Baltic Birch ply 36mm thick x 15cm wide.  

Thirty one, inverted, shelf brackets are M10, double bolted to the dome's circumference. Then screwed down on the top of the base ring. The 60kg rated shelf brackets will resist upward pressure on the base ring from the fourteen, 180mm Ø rotation rollers. 

The slit area will be reinforced by a 50x250mm [2"x10"] timber base board supporting the slit ribs. The [spherical] triangles on each side of the slit opening will be filled in. By spare GRP off-cuts of dome material. These will eventually be bonded to the dome and have their own shelf brackets. Helping to further spread the loads into the dome as evenly as possible.

15.00 Solid overcast.

16.00 Heavy rain!!

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