Monday, June 8, 2020

Namid Observatory - Day 3

Lots of fine-tuning and finishing:
  • Tightened all kinds of screws (focuser, guidescope...)
  • Measured all amps of all devices and put the right fuses into the Rigrunner
  • Figured out how to turn off the lights on the USB hub. The difference is that turned off they are passive USB plugs, turned on they are powered USB ports. The filter wheel needs a powered USB port, so we have to turn that one on and cover it.
  • Configured the Web Power Switch (accounts, outlets, IP addresses...)
  • Configured Windows
    • Applying updates NOT at night, but at day
    • Never go to sleep
    • Tried to set in the BIOS to automatically boot on power. But for some reasons, my little monitor does not display the BIOS settings. Need to find another HDMI-capable display.
  • Routed all the cables through the pier
  • Switched all devices (NUC, Web Power Switch, Mount) to static IP addresses
  • Set a park position (sideways, downwards pointing. You can't slew the 10Micron mount below the horizon. But you can loosen the clutches and move it manually and then define that position as a Park position.
  • Figured out how to power the mount on/off from MGBox. It has a "Pulse" button that does exactly that: send a pulse - which is then used at the mount to toggle on/off. Took me a while to figure that out.
We then wanted to continue polar alignment, measure collimation...

... but it was too windy and they didn't open the roof.

But we had a call with Manoj and talked about our two missing pieces:
  • The nosepiece for the ASI camera, so that we can put it into the 1.25" holder in the Starbase scope
  • The RJ10 cable to connect the MGPBox to the mount
Manoj had a nosepiece. I have RJ10 cables on my mount. We agreed that Manoj would stop by our house, get the cable and overnight both to us (normally, that would have been $78 - but with our Google corporate discount it was only $15!!!)

Next: Day 4

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