Upcoming updates

lukas_demetz

Hi guys,

as you might or might not know, I am going in Namibia in the next week to do some housekeeping and fix some issues with the scopes. In my bags I have some upgrades for the scopes:

A new autoguider for the 20" iDK, which will replace the Lodestar we currently use. This chip has nearly four times the surface area, so it should be easier to locate at least one decent star for guiding
A brand new Veloce 200 RH AT, which will substitute the uncollimable Veloce which is on site
New electronics for the DDM60 mount of the Veloce, which failed a good month ago

If all goes well, the Veloce 200 should become usable (finally!), and with a little luck I also want to finetune collimation on the 20" iDK and maybe even the balancing - which should improve tracking when unguided. I will try to keep you updated on the progress. I will try to work on the iDK possibly towards the full moon to reduce the impact of running plans.

Clear skies,
Lukas

Eduardo

Thank you, Lukas, May The Force be with you!
Looking forward to being able to using the Veloce, and enjoying all the improvements you plan to do.
Clear skies
Eduardo

fernandoyang

Good luck Lukas, looking forward to the RH200 AT.

Fernando

lukas_demetz

Hi Guys,

a quick update from my side. I am sitting here in the observatory of the Veloce, ambient temperature 34°C. I am quite unlucky with the weather - as you may have noticed, the iDK never run in the last nights. A few issues have been addressed so far:

The DDM60 mount of the Veloce has been fixed and is running well again
The polar alignment of the DDM60 has been greatly improved, going from about 16' off to about 1' both in Ra and Dec
The new Veloce optics have been installed and successfully tested
I cleaned the mirrors of the iDK and fixed a few loose cables

What I still want to do, besides in hoping for some clear skies to do it, in order of priority:

Tip tilt of the Veloce: Right now the central ₇₀% could be used even in bin 1x1, the oter edges however need for more tip correction. With enough clear sky it should be done in a few hours
Correcting polar alignemnt of the 20 iDK: I did it already, but need to cross check at night
Swapping of the guider camera: Currently I am gathering darks of the guider camera, I plan to mount it as soon as I see a few clear hours to get it correctly into focus
Testing the Veloce with a decent pointing moidel - let's see how long we can go unguided. Maybe fix a little the polar alignment
Fixing the collimation of the iDK. With the current forecast will be difficult. But some other guys later on site could tackle it.
Also, I saw that a bent pier for the iDK might be a very welcome thing to add. Well, let's see 🙂

Best regards

lukas_demetz

So I am finally getting ready to leave Namibia - my flight is tomorrow in the morning.
I am not really happy with the Veloce 200: WHile the new optics work definitively better thn the old ones, I still struggle to get the tip tilt corrected out. There seems to be no real logic behind it. Now, the system is usable and will probabily work pretty well for photometry and maybe astrometry. For classic pretty pictures, the star shapes are not satisfying. Example here:

This is a single, unguided, 60 seconds shot. Plenty of data, taken under nearly full moon. Looks good? Well, sort of. Check this:

Not so good anymore, heh? 😅
The thing is that I had basically only half a night to work on it. I would like to have a few more nights with the scope, but weather was against me. The guys on the farm will later, in the coming weeks, try to improve it. Let's hope.

The 20" iDK guiding, especially around the pole, has been greatly improved. I want to give a shot at 600 seconds unguided in the coming week.

The Veloce is now bookable, but please bear with me that the quality is not yet where I would like it to be. If you book it please acknowledge this, and don't get mad if it is not better for now. 😓