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Posts Made By: Stephen Fugardi

June 6, 2005 01:34 AM Forum: Home Observatories

7' Observatory Update - Cylinder Primed

Posted By Stephen Fugardi
Folks,

Finally the super white epoxy has been applied and is completely dried. The dome opening covers are in place. Surprisingly, the openings are out of normal reach so a small permanent step ladder may remain in the dome. Also, 5 extension cords were needed to get power to the dome! So I an thinking of using a garden hose coiler but load it with extension cords.

Anyway, for less than $2000 this dome is done! Next week I will install my C11. I am still concerned about potential leaks so a telescope cover is mandatory.

Thanks for everyone's support on this dome project. I will try to post once more with my 19 year old scope inside.

Regards,
Steve

June 12, 2005 01:06 PM Forum: Home Observatories

To the ones that built a concrete pier... question

Posted By Stephen Fugardi
Ivan,

For my C11 I also used a 12" concrete filled sonotube. 35 bags of hand mixed concrete in the hole and tube with a 4" prefilled steel basketball pole down the middle, found by the side of the road. I had everything perfectly lined up and nothing seemed to be shifting, so I made the mistake of NOT supporting the sonotube while it was drying. The pier was poured last summer and I thought it was pretty good. Until I put the dome walls up. A took a shot just before I painted it flat black this morning to show you how much an unsupported pier will shift. Anyway, once its black and Dan's top plate is leveled it should be ok.

Look forward to seeing future shots of your observatory. Good luck!

Regards,
Steve

June 12, 2005 01:10 PM Forum: Home Observatories

To the ones that built a concrete pier... question

Posted By Stephen Fugardi
Ivan, 1 more thing. Take the extra time to pack the concrete down with a 2x4 as you fill the tube. I noticed a lot of air bubbles at the lower edges on mine. I did not start packing until it was almost full which was too late. Good luck!

Steve

June 15, 2005 10:47 AM Forum: Home Observatories

To the ones that built a concrete pier... question

Posted By Stephen Fugardi
Ivan. Looks like you are getting a lot a good, free advice! Last night I connected my base plate to my pier and found almost no room to get to the bolts underneath. Also, the bolts sticking out of the concrete were not all exactly at the same height. To optimize the setup, 1 bolt had to be flush with the top, to give another barely enough thread to tighten. It's ok but could have been a disaster.

Having gone through that, I've attached a shot of my base plate setup right before I mounted my telescope base. There is only 2-3/4" clearance from the top of the concrete pier to the top of the j-bolt. Ideally, I was going to "double-nut" the base but I did not have enough space. Based on this, I would recommend minimum 4" from concrete pier to bolt top. You can use your top plate as a template when filling the sonotube. I only used 1 2x4 spacer, you should try for 2.

According to weather.com, Saturday night may be clear so I am shooting for first light then...

Good luck!
Steve

September 9, 2005 10:55 AM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

mars 2005/9/7 Richard Bosman

Posted By Stephen Fugardi
Richard, The detail on your image is awesome! You must have that 11" scope perfectly collimated.
Thanks for posting

Regards,
Steve

September 28, 2005 08:29 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

Mars 9-28-05, f25

Posted By Stephen Fugardi
Folks, To help sharpen my Mars images, I am trying to achieve the ultimate collimation. I decided to use the webcam to analyze the collimation of a 2.4 mag star, avoiding the "judgement" call on the tweaking. The out-of-focus ring is very unstable so I stacked 100 shots in black/white using Registax then considered the "final" image as the actual setup. It took 6 iterations, then I measured the ring using the photoshop ruler to verify symmetry. If anyone has a better method please reply back. Unfortunately, I had to use the hairdryer several times since the collimation star was overhead(to avoid turbulence) but the dew shield off to allow access to the knobs. I plan to verify and tweak again on another night.

Regards,
Steve

October 2, 2005 11:52 AM Forum: Home Observatories

Observatory ALMOST finished... PICS

Posted By Stephen Fugardi
Ivan, excellent progress in a short amount of time! It looks professionally installed to me. Don't hesitate in using plenty of tie-down clips, chains to protect against severe wind conditions. Also over-build a rain skirt to keep the gaps covered to guard against a sideways rain storm. In the end, it maybe worth borrowing a spray gun when your ready to paint everything flat black. Thanks for sharing your construction shots! Hopefully you'll be done soon!

Regards,
Steve

October 5, 2005 04:40 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

Mars Monday AM

Posted By Stephen Fugardi
John, Nice shot of Mars! What do you mean by the "no-raw modification"? This is new to me and I have noticed several Mars posts recently mentioning it. I cannot find this option with my toucam 840 setting or registax. At this point, I need every possible option to get my images improved. Thanks!

Regards,
Steve

October 9, 2005 05:23 PM Forum: Home Observatories

Observatory Security System

Posted By Stephen Fugardi
Bryan, My 7' homemade dome observatory is approx 400ft from the back of my house but it does not have permanent power which would be a problem trying to hookup an alarm system.

The door has 2 heavy duty key locks, and the 2 removal dome opening parts are held down with 4 inside heavy duty clips each. Finally I have a 1/2" chain with a lock, connecting a wall stud, through the base mount, and clipping on to each of the 2 removeable sections. All computers, eyepieces, and goodies are kept safely in the locked garage. Considering it took me hours in the daylight to install the scope, a thief may have his work cut out for him in the dark. But of course if the thief really wanted my 19-yr scope, he could have it. With a replacement insurance policy, I could buy a new one with the nice coatings.

One of my favorite stories was from 8 years ago, someone stole my falling apart 15-yr old John Deere tractor right out from under my deck in VA, insurance bought me a brandy new one. Gotta love that...

Regards,
Steve

October 11, 2005 09:56 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

Phobos

Posted By Stephen Fugardi
Paul, nice image! Did you block out Mars somehow to capture Phobos? Considering the magnitude differences -1 vs 11, it would put the moon vs Mars at 10e-12 dimmer!

Since my web-cam only goes to 1/25 sec, I was thinking of afocaling my Canon A80 to my 8.8mm eyepiece and trying to capture the moons using your time of 0.5sec or so. According the the Sky n Telescope website, http://skyandtelescope.com/observing/objects/planets/article_1004_1.asp, they suggest adding a strip across the eyepiece to block some of the Mars light.

Looks like another week of rain here in CT... Please keep posting,

Regards,
Steve

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