Observatory Progress

[RobertM]

Drool !!!

[The Thing]

Double drool!

[Les R]

Looks like the lens has misted up......you've got a sort of milky mess across the sky! 

Boy... Am I jealous! All networked up so you can operate remotely I assume?

[MarkS]

All networked up so you can operate remotely I assume?

Not yet.  I was hoping the wireless networking would be fine but the desktop PC won't remotely log onto the Observatory laptop when it's out in the observatory (it can't see it), even though both see the router.  I'm not sure why.  When I bring the Observatory laptop indoors I can remotely log onto it fine.

If all else fails I'll run an ethernet cable through the conduit that I thoughtfully buried in the ground - thanks for that tip Robert!

[MarkS]

Got remote desktop control working today.  Dunno what the problem was but a windows update seemed to fix it.  So I'm currently sat in the warm, learning how to use APT.  Very nice program.  I love the collimation aid (the concentric circles) and the Bhatinov.  Shame the collimation aid doesn't come with remotely actuated Bob's knobs! I've also ditched the Shoestring GPUSB and I'm using pulsed guiding from EQMOD.

I'm gradually catching up, technology wise

[The Thing]

I'm using Team Viewer on my phone to monitor guiding on my laptop at the moment. It will even relay PHDs pings when it looses the guide star!

[RobertM]

Mark,

You will find that, thoughtfully, Microsoft seems to disable some network traffic with particular updates - notably Remote desktop.  If you disable updates then it should be ok - well it worked for me.

You will also find that those Ring battery chargers throw a lot of noise out onto the mains so I turn mine off during imaging.

Robert

[MarkS]

The first observatory casualty occurred tonight.  I had the roof 2/3 retracted because that allowed the scopes to see sufficent sky.  But because of the dew collecting on the front edge of the roof section, it dripped down into the observatory and onto the keyboard of one of the laptops.  The keyboard now doesn't respond and Windows will not start up. Hopefully it'll be OK once it dries out.

[mickw]

Is the laptop happy again ?

You are stuffed with dew, I even think guttering wouldn't help because the dew would settle on the bottom of the guttering as well

[MarkS]

Lappy not happy, definitely not.

I even put it in the electric oven last night for a few hours to thoroughly dry it but Windows still won't fully boot because of inoperable keyboard.

Luckily it was my old Toshiba laptop not the replacment Lenovo.  So I have one Tosh with a dodgy screen and another identical model with a dodgy keyboard.  I should be able to mix'n'match to create a single working laptop.

[mickw]

Bummer

At least keyboards are usually a doddle to replace

[MarkS]

At least keyboards are usually a doddle to replace

Hope so ...

[Carole]

Can you plug in a desktop keyboard in the meantime?

Carole

[Mike]

Interesting. I wonder if it is just a short across one of the contacts or if the keyboard controller chip has gone pop. Like Carole says, try an external keyboard for now.

[MarkS]

Finally - the video:
https://vimeo.com/78316901

Approx 9000 frames shot at 1 frame/minute