SCGObservatory updates
The StarlightCascade Observatory has a carpet on plywood on styrofoam insulation floor.
Because it is fairly small, telescopes need to be stored away when not in use, to get out of the way.
To aid in moving the 20cm dobsonian telescope, we built this little sliding platform. The first image is “before” with only four small teflon pads.
The next image is the “after” with the original 4 small teflon pads but also three much larger ones and a couple of smaller ones.
The total teflon on carpet surface area has gone up by a factor of 3 or 4 and in actual tests of moving the telescope in and out of storage position, works very well! Friction has in fact decreased enough so that you are not straining to move it with your foot anymore.
I suspect his method may not work out for very heavy telescopes… wheels would almost certainly be needed.
This is a telrad, an optical finder accessory for telescopes. They are great, recommended for anyone with a scope that needs to point manually.
They are also horrible, being the first to dew up when it cools down in the evening. The solution to this is to add a little heater to the optical surfaces of the telrad and all is well!
These images show the installation of a kit purchased at Astrocats, by Dave Yates (instructions here). This is similar to what we did 15 years back while attending Starfest on our first telrad.
This is a 100 ohm wire wound resistor (rated for 2 watts) mounted just inside the glass surface, with wires running down the body to a power tap. You plug in an RCA male 12vdc cable to your dew controller and it will prevent dew from forming on the instrument!
In the past we would hook these directly into a 12vdc power source, usually a battery, but there is wisdom in running it through a power controller first.
We bought 4 kits and will be installing the remainder in the near future. This first one was installed on Kim’s 20cm “Starbuck” dobsonian.