• dug a hole 600×600x600mm
• hammered steel rods into the walls of the hole for stability
• filled the hole with concrete
• inserted steel rods in the centre of the concrete where the column will be cast
• started laying foundation blocks
• started assembling the steel shed

I should be able to cast the column either this evening or in the morning after which I’ll continue with the foundations. I’m only using a single block foundation as there’s no weight in the shed and it’ll be supported internally by a wooden frame.

Here’s a before and after shot showing the location of the observatory:

I can’t believe that since dismantling the mount we’ve had the clearest night skies for months. I just have to console myself with the knowledge that it won’t be long until I can take advantage of any gap in the clouds

More to follow…

Putting this minor distraction to one side, the column form will be held in place with a wooden cage (I’ve made that) which will sit on wooden beams laid across the base pit.  The pit will be approx 900mm cubed with the column rising from the centre. I’ll level the cage by driving timbers into the ground at angles then screwing them to the cage to hold it upright. This will have to be done on the day of the concrete pour to make sure everything is as perfect as I can get it. When the concrete is set I’ll build my self-assembly steel shed around the column. I’ll build a wooden frame inside the shed extending to the rear to allow the roof to be slid off.  I’ve found a few examples of this being done online but my favourite, and the one I’m using as inspiration is the Linnhe Observatory in Scotland.

Rather than cast a concrete floor I’ll be laying a waterproof membrane and building a raised wooden floor. The observatory will be for the most part remotely operated so there’s no need to build in creature comforts however I will be including storage for all the astro odds and ends that I’ve collected.

I’ll update this as the project progresses …

A view of the column top. The wooden plate will be removed after the concrete has set leaving a spanner sized gap for tightening the bolt that will hold the EQ6 in place.

This is the tripod top sitting perfectly in the brake-disk. If only I could weld it there. Plan B may involve drilling in from the sides and bolting the two pieces together. Unless I can find someone with a tig welder?

Anyway, the reason why I thought I’d write something today is to let everyone know that I’m about to build my own roll-off-roof observatory.  I’ve purchased a metal shed which is approx 10′x10′ (3m x 3m) and after searching everywhere for a round section column form to cast the pier I’ve decided to make my own mould from ply which will give a square section, but I have the ply so I can make it at no cost.  I’ve booked 2 weeks off work in March to do the build so I’m currently in the planning stage.

My wife managed to topple the mount this week which luckily didn’t hit anybody or anything on the way down and the only damage appears to be a broken locking lever from the weight shaft.  Its a black cast component that fits over a brass square topped bolt.  I’ll make a new lever when I get a minute. I won’t know if there’s any internal damage until my next viewing/imaging session – fingers crossed.

I’ll take photos and make comments throughout the build so keep watching for updates.

Here’s the mask (it’s not really this colour):

The tabs on the side bend over to “hook” over the top of the scope, but in use I had to use some masking tape to hold it in place.

The resulting image when out of focus clearly shows 3 separate images for dimmer stars but shows six large spikes on bright stars like Arcturus here:

When in focus the the 3 images become 1 and the spikes on the bright star become very clear:

The secondary vanes still make spikes so I get an extra 4 to help focusing.

So after focusing the camera (and I think it could do with another tweak), I took a few images before the battery ran out.

M3 Globular Cluster

M13 Globular Cluster

M27 The Dumbbell Nebula

NGC6946 Spiral Galaxy

I’m disappointed that even with 3 minute exposures NGC6946 is still very faint.  With the Atik 16ic this galaxy was brighter using 1 minute exposures – but that’s the difference between a CCD and a CMOS camera I guess.

Next time out I’ll see if I can get the focus even sharper.  I’m also trying to work out how to get the 2″ LPR filter I bought into the light-path given that the camera adapter doesn’t have filter threads.  I’m so glad I haven’t bought a coma corrector yet as this would screw into the same non-existent threads!

I took a couple of 5 minute frames across the “mexico” of the North American Nebula (NGC7000) but they won’t stack so I can only view the frames individually. I’m sure I have caught some nebulosity and comparing my image with others I can make out some structure, but I think I’d need to take lots of these, on a clear night with good seeing and better focus to make anything worth showing here. Maybe next time.

Here’s a quick and dirty draft image using 14×120 second frames and 1 dark.  I’ve streched and tweaked the image to try and bring out the detail in the nebula, but its still very faint on the left of the image.

The Veil Nebula (NGC6960)

Hopefully I’ll be posting a better image here after I’ve got all the data in.

Another quick effort before wor. I managed to get another 10 shots but DSS only stacked 35 of them.  There’s more detail in there I just need to tease it out using photoshop.

The Veil Nebula (NGC6960) 35x120 seconds

I have another dark frame to add to the stack but I don’t have time at the moment.  Maybe later

Update: Saturday 26th September

I was able to create flats and bias frames as I leave the camera connected to the scope so the light path hasn’t changed since these images were taken the other night.  Reprocessing has annoyingly made things worse not better as there seems to be some structured noise that is accentuated by the new processing.

Example of noise

I’m guessing the noise is a result of imaging at iso1600 rather than adding flats and bias frames but only time will tell as I take more images. Unless someone knows the answer and would like to make a comment

I’m currently trying the same flat frames with the Veil image from the 12th as I’m sure the flats will remove the bright area on the image.  I opened the combined flat in Photo shop and stretched it to find an exact match for my bright area which I may have blamed on coma in a previous post. The iso value of the flats doesn’t match the iso value of the lights so I’m not sure I’m going to get anything, but I’ll keep trying.

—–End Update —–

Session details:

Imaging: Canon 300d (unmodified) – Skywatcher 250 Newtonian scope on EQ6Pro mount

Guiding: PHD -Atik 16ic on 60mm refractor

Processing etc: EQMod, Starry Night, Canon Remote Capture, PHD DSLR Shutter, Deepsky Stacker and PhotoShop CS2

Clearer than last night, there doesn’t appear to be as much high cloud. I’ve been shooting for the last 2 hours but I’m not happy with the focus so have just returned from making a few adjustments. Fingers crossed, it’s a bit hit and miss trying to focus on stars through the view finder on the camera, but I think I’ve improved things.

Here’s M81 (before changing the focus).  It’s too close to the meridian now to start taking more shots so I don’t have anything to compare with it.

M81 (Bode's Galaxy)

I’ve moved on to the Spindle Galaxy (M102) which is very small in the Canon’s field of view so I don’t know if I’ll get anything worth showing.  On the Atik16ic the spindle didn’t quite fit in the frame, I used to try and get it across the diagnal, but now it’s a tiny blur in the middle of the frame.

Hmm, not too happy with the M102 results so far. I wonder if I can fine tune the focus on something like M13. The globular clusters have enough stars to allow me to find a round star (given the amount of coma I have) somewhere that I can focus with.

Scrap all the images I’ve taken over the last 90 minutes or so.  The trouble with changing the focus is that its not an exact science, especially when you have the standard skywatcher focuser  It looks like I was a fraction out, but more so than I was before.  I finally managed to get it closer by changing to 10 second subs on M2 using the small JPG option.  This allowed me to quickly (20 minutes) change the focus, take a shot, change the focus … you get the idea.  I’m now taking a short series of M2’s in the hope I can prove to myself that the focus is indeed better than before.  The wind has picked up now though so I have even more variables to contend with.

M2 Globular Cluster

After M2 I turned back to M27.  I was pleased with my previous efforts, but I think the new shots are much better.

M27 (Full Frame)	M27 (close up)
After changing the focus and reducing the exposure time I have much better star shapes across the whole frame.	The nebula cropped from the previous image.

Here’s another NGC6960 – The Veil Nebula (West). I tried shorter exposures but more of them. This is 26×60 seconds from a set of 35.

The Veil Nebula (West)

NGC6946 is a galaxy that I often come back to. Last year my images were used by Belfast University as I’d managed to capture a super nova event before the big boys turned their scopes in that direction. The Atik does a better job of bringing the detail out, but it’s another view of an old favourite.

NGC6946

M52 The Scorpion Cluster is one that I caught with the Atik some time ago. I’m not a huge fan of open clusters (because they didn’t fit in my FOV!) but this one fits nicely onto the Canon sensor.

M52 The Scorpion Cluster

M31 The Andromeda Galaxy has just made it past the meridian, but the battery has run out in the camera. I only managed 3 frames but it’s now 03:02 and I don’t think I’ll change the battery – I need some sleep.

M31 The Andromeda Galaxy

I even got the bonus galaxies M32 and M110, that wasn’t planned

I’ve just been reading some articles on DSLR Astro work and I think I need to start looking at BIAS, Darks and Flats.  I’ve used Dark Frames previously with webcams but didn’t need them with the Atik. On my next clear night I’ll try and do things properly.

I took some more shots of the Veil, but when viewed through cloud it’s not easy to make out even with 10 minute subs! M3 was a starting point, with M101 next. M101 was very faint and I should have realized then that something was not right. It’s usually bright on short exposures but 17×90 second frames wasn’t enough to show any of the detail on this spiral galaxy.

M3 Globular Cluster	M101 Galaxy 17x90 secs	The Veil Nebula (West)
		I’ve really stretched this to bring out the wispy strands of the nebula, and in so doing have accentuated the bright area that appears in all my Canon images. I think this is something to do with the collimation of the scope and/or the camera being slightly off the central axis of the light path. Maybe when I get a coma corrector it’ll go away

It was a bit of a spontaneous session but I thought I’d blow the dust off all the equipment and see if I could remember how it all goes together. I’d left the Canon 300D attached to the eyepiece tube of the scope after the last session figuring that the dust cap on the scope was as good as anything I had for the camera. Not only that but I didn’t have to play about with the focus either

A quick squirt of lens cleaner on my donated refractor lens and a wipe with a cloth and I was ready to go.

Ursa Major was nicely positioned for me align the mount using Dubhe and Mizar as alignment points for EQMOD. I used the Starry Night software to slew the scope to M51 to test the focus and make sure everything was still working. The battery was dead in the Canon, but I had a spare so didn’t waste too much time getting that sorted out. It took a few attempts to make everything work but I got there in the end.

I’ll have to have a go at making a Bahtinov Mask one day but for now I’ll leave the camera attached and the focus lock tightly done up!

After M51 I moved on to M13, M27 and finally the Veil Nebula (NGC6960) before the spare battery gave up and I called it a night. It’s the first time I’ve seen the Veil as the field of view on Canon is wide enough to cover it but the Atik 16ic which I’d been using previously would have required me to do a mosaic.

I only managed 2 frames of the Veil before the battery went but it’s encouraged me to look again and maybe next time take enough frames to bring out the detail.

I still desperately need a coma corrector and keep looking on ebay to see if I can get one cheap but I’ll have to suffer egg shaped stars for the time being.

M13 The Hercules Cluster	M27 The Dumbbell Nebula	NGC6960 The Veil Nebula
M51 The Whirlpool Galaxy

Equipment:

Skywatcher 250mm Newtonian tube on EQ6 Pro mount.  60mm refractor with Atik16ic guiding.

Software:

Canon Remote, Stark DSLR Control, PHD Guiding, Starry Night Backyard, EQMod, Deep Sky Stacker, The Gimp

I think the 8 frame stack is an improvement but I may revisit and tweak the image as I learn more about the wavelet values and how to tease the most detail from the image.  After processing in Registax I finished the image, curves and levels, using the Gimp.

As the comet is moving quickly against the background I kept exposures to 20 seconds, which in hindsight was not long enough. I’ve spent hours trying to extract as much detail as I can from the 49 frames I took, but my best image is a stack of only 24.

Taken with the usual setup, 1200mm fl 254mm newtonian scope on EQ6 mount. Starry Night, EQMOD, Canon 300D (unmodded). Guided with 70mm cheapo scope using QHY5 guide camera.

As a footnote, I must try and get the Atik 16ic configured as my guider.  The QHY5 is so unreliable, both Guidemaster and PHD crash when using it. I have found that if I leave PHD with the error message on the screen it continues to guide regardless

In the same session I also managed to get a few 3 minute guided frames of M51.  I’ve not been able to get more than 1 minute subs previously, but the guider worked for most of the session, so I’ve been able to stack 20 frames to make this image:

It’s nice to have a colour camera to get these galaxy shots but I think I need to go longer than 3 minutes! Coma is very obvious even in this heavily cropped image – I think I may need to invest in a coma corrector next.