With the help of Gary Walker, Tom Calderwood and Bill Toomey, we were able to construct the original BSM_HQ enclosure on my new "pad". There were no show stoppers, but I wanted to remove the roofing tape that sealed the enclosure to the HQ roof, and that tape glue is tenacious stuff! I spent about an hour removing three strips. We thought about how to make the roof opening larger, and Gary will look to see if he has additional track available to give us the 6-8" additional opening. It will be really good if we can make that happen.
After the team left, I routed ethernet and power from the observatory, installed the web power strip, the Belkin USB_over_ethernet device, plugged in the roof and mounted the webcam.
Tomorrow I'll complete the installation by dressing cables and then installing the telescope. Tomorrow night I hope to do the polar alignment and then let the system run the rest of the night. I'll clean up the enclosure and try to paint it before the cold weather moves in.
I'll take some pictures tomorrow of the setup. It looks tiny, next to the 80cm dome. Getting close to first light!
Arne
Sounds great, can't wait to see the pictures!
Mike
Hopefully some day we can get a "professional grade" ecnclosure for BSM-Hamren. Whatever it is, it needs to be tough and resistant to humidity. The last week has been constant wet and windy here on the windward Big Island...
Mike
Tom Calderwood took several pictures during construction, plus I've taken a few since. The system is in commissioning stage right now, testing software and ironing out operational issues. Some data has been taken on one night, and once we get a couple more under our belt, we'll process and release images. It is nice having the system in your back yard instead of 100 miles away!
Arne
Appears like you have quite a bit of sky blockage at that spot, maybe even more than BSM-Hamren? Esp. those twigs and leaves can partially block the fov...which could subtly affect photometry.
Mike
Hi Mike,
The NH site has good and bad features; the pictures can be deceiving. It does have trees, so only about half of the sky is visible. I've placed the enclosure to the west side of the clearing so that we get optimal eastern sky, a direction that is a priority for this eastern longitude. it is near a lake, so the humidity is high and we get fog on many mornings. However, the lake freezes over for 5-6 months of the year, so the fog goes away.
It is very dark, which is an advantage for visual observers but not necessarily for the BSM. Its main advantage is that it is in my back yard, so that I can make changes and improvements easily. It is temporarily mounted, and could be moved to another site if we decide this one has too many drawbacks.
Helmar will map out the horizon in the next week or two, so that ACP does not image into the trees. And, some of those trees might disappear if they are particularly bothersome.
Arne