Building a Small Imaging Observatory – Roof
In this part of the series, I will cover construction of the roof. This is the most complex part of the structure and it required a bit of trial and error to create something workable The Roof Chassis There are various options for making a workable roll-off mechanism, but I settled on using V-Groove steel […]
Building a Small Imaging Observatory – Door
In this post, I will tackle the door frame and door. The construction method is the same as for the other three walls, but slightly more involved to ensure the door is secure and watertight. The Fourth Wall and Door Frame The first step in the construction of the fourth wall was to add a […]
Building a Small Imaging Observatory – Walls
In this post the observatory is starting to take shape. We will finish the floor and build the plain walls (I’ll cover the wall with the door frame later). The Floor The first step was to lay the floor which was made from a sheet of 11mm Oriented Strand Board (OSB). I used basic OSB2, […]
Building a Small Imaging Observatory – Foundations
In this post, we’ll get started on the foundations and framework for my roll-off roof back garden observatory. In the previous post, I finished building the telescope pier and now it’s time to enclose it. The Framework When planning this observatory, I considered a number of construction options. Many people buy a wooden, plastic or […]
Building a Small Imaging Observatory – The Pier
In this post, I’ll explain how I finished building the concrete pier for my roll-off roof back garden observatory. In the previous post, I covered the groundwork for the pier, and this time I will explain the process of building it. In the Mix The pier foundation and pier are constructed from concrete, as are […]
AR2673 with M-Class Flare
Today I managed to capture the end of a large M-Class flare from AR2673 which has been very active for most of this week: Scope: Lunt LS60THa/B1200CPT, 2x Barlow (for detail images) Camera: ZWO ASI174MM, FireCapture Mount: Sky-Watcher AZ-GT Processing: AutoStakkert! 2, PixInsight 1.8 Date: 9th September 2017, 12:04UTC
Building a Small Imaging Observatory – Groundwork
In this series of posts, I’ll set out details of how I built a small roll-off roof back garden observatory for my imaging equipment. I’m by no means an expert DIYer, though I do tackle smaller jobs around the house when the mood strikes. Building with wood is not as daunting as it might seem. […]
DIY Solar Scintillation Seeing Monitor (SSSM)
In this post, I’ll provide a step-by-step guide to building an inexpensive Solar Scintillation Seeing Monitor. The SSSM is a handy device which monitors the atmospheric seeing conditions during solar imaging. This SSSM can be built for a fraction of the cost of commercially available devices. You can use the SSSM to monitor seeing conditions through the day, […]
Sun in Ha – 18th June 2017
AR2662 (left side of image) and AR2663 (right side), 11:35UTC in Hydrogen Alpha (inverted image). Close up of AR2662 plus filaments, 14:19UTC: Detail of the larger prominence on the limb, 13:42 UTC: Scope: Lunt LS60THa/B1200CPT, 2x Barlow (for detail images) Camera: ZWO ASI174MM, FireCapture Mount: Sky-Watcher AZ-GT Processing: AutoStakkert! 2, PixInsight 1.8 Date: 18th June 2017
AR2645 Class C Flare – 6th April 2017
AR2645 (right side of animation) plus large prominence (left side). AR 2645 flared at class C shortly after 12:00UTC, unfortunately whilst the camera was not capturing for the first part of this, but the tail end of the flare is captured as can be seen when the AR jumps in brightness about 2/3rds of the […]