DAY 6 of the new observatory

I finally connected up the roof motor to test it - I still have to decide exactly where to control it from. At the moment I have located the control switch in the observatory. The roof opened and closed perfectly straight away after I set the upper and lower roof limits with adjusting screws on the motor.

 

Day 5 of the new observatory, Lunar Eclipse and Mars Opposition

The day started by getting the assistance I needed to get the roof on my new observatory. It took three of us to manhandle the three parts of the roof into the guiding slots. 

The observatory with its three roof sections in place.

The next stage is to add the motor and link the drive belt to the upper roof section.

The lunar eclipse seen from southern Spain was a stunning sight with a bright Mars just below it and to the west. This is the first time that , with the presence of a full Moon I could see the brilliance of the Miky Way. The Moon rose over the hills first and was hardly visible in its eclipsed state. 

The image below shows the Moon rising with Mars still behind the hills on the southern horizon.(iPhone)

 

The image below was taken with a Sony A58 DSLT and 75mm lens.

The image details are given below. Note that longer exposures would show trailing of Mars so I was unable to capture background detals in this tripod mounted shot.

Day 4 of new observatory

This morning with an early start I managed to put on the guide rails for the motorised roof segments and attach the motor which drives a tube that rotates and drives the roof segments to open and close. I only managed to get one roof section installed as it needs more than one person to insert all 3 segments. 

 

Day 3 of new observatory

I had to wait for the wind to die down to allow me to manhandle the sides of the observatory which delayed my start until about midday. You know what they say about englishmen and the noon day sun -although I was born in Scotland!  The temperature was in the mid 30's,  as it is every day, and insects were homing in on me. I applied the insect repellent but obviously missed a few areas so I am writing this with bites on my ears, face and elbow! I managed to put the basic structure together but am waiting until tomorrow to sort out the motorised roof. 

Here is the sequence of the structure going up.

BELOW: A throughbolt in each corner securely fixes the observatory.

 

 

Day 2 of New Observatory

Today I put together the two halves of the observatory metal base in the correct location. Obviously there will need to be some courtyard tree trimming!

They were secured together by two bolts on the east and two bolts on the west side. One of the bolts on the east side is shown below.

 Then I drilled an M10 hole through the tiles into the concrete below on each corner. I used an M10 through bolt (concrete anchor) to fasten down the base as shown below. See the you tube video here. I made sure tht the top of the bolt is below the level of the floor ledge on each corner.

 I made sure that the metal base was level in east-west and north-south directions. The east west level is shown below

The north -south level is shown below

New Observatory Arrives at my Spanish Base

My new observatory has arrived at my place in Spain in the province of Almeria today - delivered from Albacete. The pieces are all stacked against the wall of my courtyard where I am going to assemble it.

Half of the heavy metal base is shown in the image which was taken from the south side of the courtyard.

Tuesday 12th June 2018 Midnight.

Midnight - My first night observing the sky here in Spain since I arrived two weeks ago. As always the Pole star seems very low in the sky at this latitude of 37 degrees in Andalusia in comparison with my usual 53 degrees in Lancashire. The great bear is standing on its head with its tail in the air and the pointers show me the position of Polaris just over my northern courtyard wall, allowing me to roughly polar align the CGEM mount with the polarscope. The chart below shows the situation. (Courtesy of Software Bisque)

My single story villa lies to the south of the courtyard and I can see the Scorpion rising with the bright red Antares visible just over the roof. Higher of course is the brilliant planet Jupiter and one by one I begin to recognise the constellations. Overhead the brilliant star Arcturus immediately catches the eye.  Lyra is there with its bright star Vega and Cygnus is off to the east with the axis of the swan lying parallel to the hills that lie in that direction. The three readily recognised stars of Aquila help me to identify the bright star Altair. The latter 3 stars of course form the Summer Triangle which will become much more evident in the night sky in a month or so. The bowl shaped Corona Borealis is visible overhead. The chart below shows the view to the south. (Courtesy of Software Bisque)

Back to Spain - Open Cluster NGC 6791 remotely imaged

I arrived in Spain last night after a 2 night voyage on the Cap Finistere from Portsmouth to Bilbao and a 12 hour drive down the length of Spain to Andalucia. I have yet to extract the Celestron 14 and the Paramount ME from the back of my truck.

 

I connected to a New Mexico telescope to take an image of the open cluster NGC 6791 in Lyra.

The size of the square image is 47' 4". The position angle of the original image was 179 degrees 25 minutes from North but this has been rotated to put North at the top in the above image.

AMATEUR NIGHT SKY WEEKLY 21ST MAY 2018

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