Maintenance of august 20th & 26th

Some maintenance at the observatory today:

1/ a tube has been installed so hold fibers and cables together:

2/ a new fresh joint has been installed between the dome walls and the concrete; color is not fantastic but it should work:

3/ I installed (finally!) a RoboFocus I had for very long time. It is attached to a new holder, I hope there won't be too many flexure (to be checked during night), but it's great to see it working from PRISM v10 software
I couldn't get the autofocus function work (somehow the "camera is not ready"... not sure what is happening thgere). But manual focus from the computer works great. This is an important step toward remote observation... preparing myself for the cold winter nights!

Note: during an observation of a Be star 28 Cyg (august 25th), I noticed focus was not perfect and I improved it slightly during exposure. I improved the signal by 20% so it is a great improvement for the observatory!


4/ During the night, I replaced the eyepiece (used sometimes to control focus or to recenter on a bright star) by one with a moving micrometer. This way, I can put the star very close to the optical fiber tip!

5/ I assembled an IKEA small table  to put my tools on and the IP camera. The inside of the dome is now very clean and nice.


6/ I also added a joystick so I can adjust the guiding manually (the mont still having tracking problems) with the joystick, much easier than the mouse...


7/ on august 26th I replaced 12-14V the mount power supply with a 18V one

8/ I also got a precise spring load (electronic), to help balancing the mount. When balancing the RA axis, I make sure the tension is the same when pulling up or down (at the lattitude angle of course). It seems to work very well. I disassembled the DEC gear and checked balance afterward - it was perfect
On the RA axis, I added a 100gr bag on the counterweight during the balancing. When observing East, the counterweight is on the East part of the mount and I add another 100gr bag so the mount is balanced 100gr east side. When observing West, counterweight on the West side of the mount, I remove all the bags and the mount is also balanced 100gr east side...

9/  I also have couple of sets of metallic feeler gauge to adjust both side of the worms the same way. On DEC I used 1mm size.


Both equilibrum and 18V power supplies have improved the tracking and guiding; I seem to have lot less motor lags now...