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Description: My friend Andrew was kind enough to offer help to get the wedge and mount up and bolted onto the base. Andrew owns and runs a computer and phone repair store so we were both careful to wear our masks as we worked together. This all happened before I bought the shop-crane.
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Description: A 2,000 lb shop crane from Harbor Freight made short work of getting the scope on the mount. This was a nerve wracking operation but it was very stable and pretty easy. Just be careful!
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Description: Since the L500 mount requires precise balance and because I am using a rotator, the ONAG assembly had to be precisely counter balanced. Here is what the assembly looked like before it went on the scope.
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Description: The rear of the telescope with everything mounted and almost everything wired. It looks a bit haphazard but the components are distributed around the circumference to achieve balance about the centerline. The scope turned out to be perfectly balanced in all orientations.
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Description: Here's a view of the 20" scope and control cabinet taken during the frequency tuning process required for the direct drive motors. Once tuned, the mount moves the telescope without making any noise. It is completely silent--and a little spooky!
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Description: Here's a close up view of the ONAG guider on the Gemini Focuser. It's hard to tell in the photo, but the counter-weight sits far enough out that it can rotate without any snags or interference.
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Description: This is the 9U 450mm Navepoint rack that holds the power supplies, UPS, IP power switch, and PC needed to run the telescope remotely. It is incomplete in this photo. The two loose power supplies will go on a rack panel and another blank panel will cover the other exposed shelf. The network switch is also missing.
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Description: Assembling the base required carefully cutting the rectangular aluminum tubes and then drilling and threading the holes to attach the gussets. There are about 200 bolts holding the assembly together. It turned out to be a BIG job to get this thing built!
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Description: This is the wiring diagram for the lower part of the scope. A goal is to allow various components on the scope to be individually controlled. This also keeps certain power sources separate to minimize potential electrical interference. Each camera has it's own power source and thermal control can be used only when needed.
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Description: This is the power distribution wiring diagram for the OTA. The Focus Boss is actually the Gemini controller.
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Description: This is the wiring diagram for the OTA data lines.
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Description: Another view of the scope with the control box (under construction.)
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Description: I used panel pass through connectors for everything except for the USB cables. This makes it very easy connect and disconnect the control cabinet. The USB cables simply pass through an access panel on the top to connect directly to the PC. It's not as elegant as a panel pass-through but it minimizes connections to the cameras, which is critical. All cables will be in cable sheath to discourage rodent damage.
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Description: I used SendCutSend.com to laser cut a panel to mount the two Powerwerx power supplies and it came out really nice. The network switch is installed and there's one space left for the flat panel controller, which is on the way. Once that's installed a panel cover hides the power bricks and supplies above the power supplies. External antennas will make the system useable on my local network so it's close to finished!
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Description: First light under the stars showed that the scope focused almost exactly where the design said that it should (within the manufacturing tolerances of the components). I made a laser cut B-mask for the 20" and this is an image of a focused star at focus. The guide camera also focused perfectly! It's always satisfying when things come out just like the design says it should!
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Description: It was windy, cold, and turbulent for the first night under the stars. The main goal was to check focus and get an initial assessment of image quality. This is the analysis of a 5 second exposure of a random star field in the Milky Way. FWHM measured a bit under 1.2 arc-seconds and the field performance looks good. The wind was 7-8 kts so I couldn't get any exposures longer than about 20 seconds with good looking stars. That will have to wait for another session.
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Description: After aligning the mount and doing a sky model, pointing and tracking were superb! This is a stretched raw Lum-sub from a 5 minute unguided exposure on my second night of testing. The FWHM is right at 2.0", which is roughly consistent with the seeing conditions. An earlier 60 second unguided sub achieved 1.7" FWHM. Clearly, the roll out base works pretty well with the L500. The winds were calm, which always helps with a bigger scope like this.
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Description: Here's the B-mask that I had laser cut to fit the 20". I used Ponoko and they have a size limitation so I had to bolt two halves together. I've since discovered that SendCutSend can easily handle this size and that they are at least 1/3 the cost of Ponoko! I painted the mask glossy white on the front so that I could more easily see it in the dark (I've nearly stepped on other masks many times!) A B-mask is essential for very accurately co-focusing the guide camera with the main camera and for setting color offsets. The L-mount doesn't even seem to notice the ~4 lbs on the front of the scope from this mask.
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Cloudy Nights |
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Distinct awarded users | Total awarded images | |
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Top picks | ||
Top pick nominations |
Image of the day | Top pick | Top pick nominations | Total submitted | |
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Deep sky | ||||
Solar system | ||||
Extremely wide field | ||||
Star trails | ||||
Northern lights | ||||
Noctilucent clouds | ||||
Landscape |
Image of the day | Top pick | Top pick nominations | Total submitted | |
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Backyard | ||||
Traveller | ||||
Own remote observatory | ||||
Amateur hosting facility | ||||
Public amaeteur data | ||||
Professional, scientific grade data | ||||
Mix of multiple sources | ||||
Other | ||||
Unknown |
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