New Forest Observatory ®

In between gales and pouring rain (continuing today and for the next few days) I have managed to fit the third 200mm Canon lens and 2600MC Pro CMOS camera to the top plate, in between the other two 200mm lenses.

The third Sky90 has gone back into its old slot in the main support frame.

I haven’t yet replaced any of the Trius M26C CCDs on the Sky90s with the 2600MCs yet, and I’m waiting to see if the M26C on Sky90(1) is working OK or not as it was swapped out for a spare as it looked like the head amplifier had gone. If the replacement M26C is no good, then Sky90(1) will be the first Sky90 to receive a 2600MC.

The next clear sky will be used to set up the third 200mm lens. This will mean aligning, collimating and taking a 30-minute sub (the maximum for the 2600MC Pro) to check for flexure.

Also, in parallel, I am getting all the necessary software loaded and tested on a DELL Optiflex 3090 which I will use to run the third 200mm lens.

I have also decided, with the Sky90s, that I will not purchase a 52mm duo-narrowband filter for Sky90(3), but instead I will put the Optolong L-Enhance filters in the filter-wheels on Sky90(1) and Sky90(2) and will take straight RGB data at the same time on Sky90(3). This is perhaps not ideal for maximising data, but for overall time expediency it is probably the best for me.

So what’s he doing now, and why is he mucking around changing things already? Well I am unhappy with the mounting arrangement of the third 200mm lens in the old Sky90(3) slot. So what’s the problem? The geometry restriction of the slot means that one set of adjusters needs to be on the lens, while the other set of adjusters needs to go on the camera. This means when you screw up the adjusters to get alignment, there is a differential stress between the lens and the camera. This makes collimation adjustment (using the front plate screws on the 2600MC Pro) somewhere between difficult and impossible. So what am I going to do now? I’ve bought some bits of hardware which will allow me to fit the 3rd 200mm lens between the other 2 lenses on the top plate (the spotting scope will move onto a side panel). What I don’t know is whether the new lens mounting arrangement will introduce flexure or not. The only way to find out will be to do the experiment. Stay tuned in. I will be putting the 3rd Sky90 back into its old slot and getting the computer connected up and hopefully finding its old Robofocus autofocus settings for FocusMax, or I’ll have all the fun and games of getting that going again. I will also order a 52mm duo band filter for the 3rd Sky90 so I can do narrowband on all 3 (the other 2 are already set up for this). Anything else? Well yes of course I will need a new computer, keyboard, mouse and monitor for the new added system. That’s no problem, but finding some space in the jam-packed observatory just might be.