After all the fun I had this winter in St George, with my new Nexstar 8I, I decided to reopen my little rolling roof observatory in Salt Lake. Almost 15 years of disuse! The mice and spiders thought the place was all theirs. Everything was exactly as I had left it in June of 1988 with a few exceptions. One, the garbage bags I used to cover everything at the end of a session had completely disintegrated. I mean turned to dust...brown dust. Two, The mice had eaten most of my observing notes and skycharts. Three, the plastic caps that covered the visual back, the finderscope, and the polar alignment scope had shrunk and fallen out, exposing the lenses to a heavy layer of dust and in the case of the C-8, to a spider who crawled inside and spun a big old web. So, I'm looking for someone, hopefully local, experienced in C-8 repair or service to clean the scope. Any suggestions? Secondly, this scope was equipped with a Skysensor "computer". This was Celestron's earliest attempt at a "goto" system and worked fairly well except for a huge periodic error in the drive system that made astrophotography challenging. Anyhow, the Skysensor suffers from the Y2K bug in that it only allows a two digit input for the year. i.e., 1988 must be input as 88. Is there a corollary date that could be input that would cause it to operate at the proper 21st century sidereal time? Barney B.
"Barney B." wrote:
One, the garbage bags I used to cover everything at the end of a session had completely disintegrated. I mean turned to dust...brown dust. Nice to know that garbage bags really are biodegradable. :-)
So, I'm looking for someone, hopefully local, experienced in C-8 repair or service to clean the scope. Any suggestions? I would not presume to callmyself an expert, but I have had my C-8s apart several times. I'd be happy to have a look at it. Next time you're going to be out near SPOC or Stansbury, let me know.
Is there a corollary date that could be input that would cause it to operate at the proper 21st century sidereal time? When I was still working at the planetarium we had three C-8s with a similar problem. Turns out Celestron was prepared, so when we called them to ask what to do they sent us 3 chips to replace the old ones. As I recall they were free. You might want to call them and see if the chips are still available.
Patrick
Patrick. Thank you so much. I'll contact you off line to set up a time to drop off the scope. Barney B. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Patrick Wiggins" <paw@trilobyte.net> To: <utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Monday, March 10, 2003 10:13 AM Subject: [Utah-astronomy] Re: Advice
"Barney B." wrote:
One, the garbage bags I used to cover everything at the end of a session had completely disintegrated. I mean turned to dust...brown dust. Nice to know that garbage bags really are biodegradable. :-)
So, I'm looking for someone, hopefully local, experienced in C-8 repair or service to clean the scope. Any suggestions? I would not presume to callmyself an expert, but I have had my C-8s apart several times. I'd be happy to have a look at it. Next time you're going to be out near SPOC or Stansbury, let me know.
Is there a corollary date that could be input that would cause it to operate at the proper 21st century sidereal time? When I was still working at the planetarium we had three C-8s with a similar problem. Turns out Celestron was prepared, so when we called them to ask what to do they sent us 3 chips to replace the old ones. As I recall they were free. You might want to call them and see if the chips are still available.
Patrick
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Barney, I hope I am not intruding, if so please excuse me. I am sorry that I do not have any suggestions for your problems. What caught my eye in your note was that you have your own rolling roof observatory. I have been seriously thinking about trying to build one, somewhere, somehow. Did you have commercial plans or design your own? Could you give me any suggestions on where to start? Thank you very much. Clear skies! :) Rog Kelm "Barney B." wrote:
After all the fun I had this winter in St George, with my new Nexstar 8I, I decided to reopen my little rolling roof observatory in Salt Lake. Almost 15 years of disuse! The mice and spiders thought the place was all theirs. Everything was exactly as I had left it in June of 1988 with a few exceptions. One, the garbage bags I used to cover everything at the end of a session had completely disintegrated. I mean turned to dust...brown dust. Two, The mice had eaten most of my observing notes and skycharts. Three, the plastic caps that covered the visual back, the finderscope, and the polar alignment scope had shrunk and fallen out, exposing the lenses to a heavy layer of dust and in the case of the C-8, to a spider who crawled inside and spun a big old web. So, I'm looking for someone, hopefully local, experienced in C-8 repair or service to clean the scope. Any suggestions? Secondly, this scope was equipped with a Skysensor "computer". This was Celestron's earliest attempt at a "goto" system and worked fairly well except for a huge periodic error in the drive system that made astrophotography challenging. Anyhow, the Skysensor suffers from the Y2K bug in that it only allows a two digit input for the year. i.e., 1988 must be input as 88. Is there a corollary date that could be input that would cause it to operate at the proper 21st century sidereal time? Barney B.
Hi Rog. My basic plan came from a 1983 or 1984 Sky & Telescope article. Since I was in the construction business, it was easy for me to grasp the basic concept and then design the structure to fit my needs. Having said that, there are some things I'd change if I were going to build one again. The roof is heavy and I would look hard at automating the open and closing systems. Also, because of the proximity to Salt Lake's light polutition, I would have made a better system for blocking ambiant light. If you are near Salt Lake City and want to come see mine, contact me off line for my address. ----- Original Message ----- From: RLKelm To: utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com Sent: Friday, March 14, 2003 3:17 PM Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Advice Barney, I hope I am not intruding, if so please excuse me. I am sorry that I do not have any suggestions for your problems. What caught my eye in your note was that you have your own rolling roof observatory. I have been seriously thinking about trying to build one, somewhere, somehow. Did you have commercial plans or design your own? Could you give me any suggestions on where to start? Thank you very much. Clear skies! :) Rog Kelm "Barney B." wrote: After all the fun I had this winter in St George, with my new Nexstar 8I, I decided to reopen my little rolling roof observatory in Salt Lake. Almost 15 years of disuse! The mice and spiders thought the place was all theirs. Everything was exactly as I had left it in June of 1988 with a few exceptions. One, the garbage bags I used to cover everything at the end of a session had completely disintegrated. I mean turned to dust...brown dust. Two, The mice had eaten most of my observing notes and skycharts. Three, the plastic caps that covered the visual back, the finderscope, and the polar alignment scope had shrunk and fallen out, exposing the lenses to a heavy layer of dust and in the case of the C-8, to a spider who crawled inside and spun a big old web. So, I'm looking for someone, hopefully local, experienced in C-8 repair or service to clean the scope. Any suggestions? Secondly, this scope was equipped with a Skysensor "computer". This was Celestron's earliest attempt at a "goto" system and worked fairly well except for a huge periodic error in the drive system that made astrophotography challenging. Anyhow, the Skysensor suffers from the Y2K bug in that it only allows a two digit input for the year. i.e., 1988 must be input as 88. Is there a corollary date that could be input that would cause it to operate at the proper 21st century sidereal time? Barney B.
RLKelm wrote:
<snip>
What caught my eye in your note was that you have your own rolling roof observatory.
I have been seriously thinking about trying to build one, somewhere, somehow. Did you have commercial plans or design your own? Could you give me any suggestions on where to start?
My 3¢ worth of advice: 1¢: Make sure the roof has some slope to it. Much less chance of leaking that way and you don't have to worry quite as much about snow load. 2¢: Make the roof beefy or (and) have a way to tie it down when closed (ask Bruce Grim about his first roll off roof at Stansbury and how the wind put it through one of this home's windows). 3¢: Steel wheels with V grooves running on angle iron track are the best, such as the ones that we have at SPOC and now on my personal observatory. Pictures of the SLAS roofs at http://slas.ws/spoc2pics.htm and a closeup of the wheels at http://slas.ws/profiles/patrickw/PATRICKW186.JPG . Patrick
participants (3)
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Barney B. -
Patrick Wiggins -
RLKelm