WELCOME TO THE UNIVERSE AS SEEN THROUGH MY EYES

New Scope - New Start

Sun, 28 Jul 2013 16:43:38 -0700

This weekend, Darren, my new observatory partner, and I completed the reconfiguration of our Scope 2. The prior telescope was an FSQ and was removed along with the Paramount ME, and was replaced with a Takahashi TOA-130 with a Paramount MX. The camera is an SBIG STT-8300M with 7 filters. Monsoons have been an annoyance, but after getting the system mounted, we had a few hours to get it aligned. Our goal is to have it running at the end of the moonsoon season. Things are looking good so far.

The Beast Stirs

Tue, 9 Apr 2013 09:15:49 -0700

2012 was a waste. Mid last year, after I repaired my computer and hubs from lightning damage nearby, I tried powering up my scope. Nothing. The Telescope Control Box (TCC) was dead for a second time. I tried reaching out to RCOS and was given a $7500 repair quote for such a small part. This put the brakes on bigtime. I had to do some thinking of where I wanted to go, and left the observatory offline. Later in the year, I heard “The News”. RCOS is out of business. Astromart began to fill with panicked RCOS owners dumping their scopes. I was nearly ready to dump it. Then, a blessing arrived. James Olson, an ex-RCOS employee, started up a company called RA-Limited.com, and purchased some IP from RCOS to allow servicing of customers. I was able to purchase spare TCC-II’s and he repaired my bad TCC. He also picked up my scope, cleaned the optics, re-collimated it, and returned it two weeks later. This completely changes things. Now with this refresh and support of my big scope, I have refocused efforts on getting the observatory back online. I replaced my aging old primary computer with a new Core i7 MacMini dumping XP and moving to Windows 7. I refreshed the second older MacMini on the FSQ with Windows 7 as well. I replaced all of the old analog cameras with new IP PTZ cameras with IR lights that can be scripted on and off. I also installed a new Synology NAS device with 12TB of storage to house all images and hold OS backups of the three computers. ACP was updated to v7 and a new Scheduler is due out soon. I refreshed my licensing with Bob Denny, Maxim, and Bisque. I also purchased a new Paramount MX for field and home use. I’m on the home stretch, and hoping that I can get the RCOS looking at light this weekend if the clouds agree with me.

Mice are Bad

Mon, 1 Apr 2013 20:38:50 -0700

If it wasn’t bad enough that there were repeated electronic failures due to lightning, both Paramount ME’s were disabled because of mice damage. Plug the rear of your Paramount! The mice climbed right up the cables and went into the mount. When they couldn’t get anywhere, they decided to chew on the cables. It turns out that the ribbon cable used on the homing sensors are coated with a vegetable based coating that must taste good. The mice chewed ONLY these wires. I contacted Ken Crawford about this since he had a similar issue in 2008. Sure enough, it happened to me too. Fixing the mount is a horrible effort. It took over 4 hours to repair. You have to fully disassemble the unit, pulling out the servos, side plates and ruining your alignment in the process. I’ve only fixed one so far. The second ME is on the todo list within a week or two.

DO NOT LET THIS HAPPEN TO YOU! Steel wool is mice kryptonite. Use it.

Cloud Sensor Repaired

Mon, 10 Dec 2012 10:29:13 -0700

I finally received back my Cloud Sensor after needing an expensive $400 repair. I am quite unhappy that the sensor failed after only two years. If it does this again, I will not be happy. I also replaced all the batteries in the UPS’s in the observatory. Exciting things on the horizon, more soon!

CEO is still alive

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 16:39:02 -0700

Some may think that I may have disappeared. This is not the case. 2011 was cursed with many issues that pretty much made the year a compete loss. Some lightning or static issue took out 3 of the primary USB hubs in the observatory and the primary computer. I had to work last year getting it all in place again. I also had to fight with Digi to RMA my hubs. I have to buy very expensive $150 USB2 hubs from them because the quality is extremely high. I run USB cables beyond USB2 specifications and have only had good luck using these hubs for reliable use. They did RMA them. I now need to finish the reinstallation on the RCOS. The FSQ has been running fine and acquiring images from late 2011 to current. Oh well, It’s a good thing the stars aren’t going anywhere very fast!