[satish.gawai]

WOW. Looking at all those pictures, I started thinking how small we are and there must be life somewhere in another galaxy. My son is very much interested in these kinds of stuff, for sure I will show him your post today evening.

By the way, 320 looks fab along a side of beautiful country roads

Thanks for sharing.

[adrena]

Fabulous images and a great thread. Thank you for documenting this.

[Kickdown]

Wow. Brilliant photography. A peep into the distant world. Amazing.

Anything related to astro always fascinates me. So many unknowns. So much more to explore. The unfathomable size of universes, the magnitude of space between them is just hard to comprehend. And here we are, sitting on a tiny blue dot, middle of nowhere, clicking these gorgeous pictures, and admiring the beauty of outer space.

If I could wish for a superpower, I would surely ask for the ability to travel faster than speed of light and then explore these different worlds. Crazy me .

[Kols]

Thanks graaja for sharing this travelogue and those amazing pictures.
I am travelling to Coorg, for the first time, with family this March. I would love to introduce kids (aged <10) to the this subject so was looking for some recommendations on :

1. A beginners telescope for kids; I saw some equipment on Amazon but better to get an expert's opinion on this.
2. Is Coorg generally good for stargazing or do you recommend a specific location. We are not aspiring to reach your level of expertise but a good starting point. I was looking for some homestays in Virajpet or Kushalnagar area. Even Dubare elephant camp was being considered as a 2-night stay option.

Would appreciate your help here. Thanks!

[graaja]

Originally Posted by satish.gawai

WOW. Looking at all those pictures, I started thinking how small we are and there must be life somewhere in another galaxy. My son is very much interested in these kinds of stuff, for sure I will show him your post today evening.

Thank you so much for the kind words!

Originally Posted by adrena

Fabulous images and a great thread. Thank you for documenting this.

Thank you for the kind words!

Originally Posted by Kickdown

Wow. Brilliant photography. A peep into the distant world. Amazing.

Anything related to astro always fascinates me. So many unknowns. So much more to explore. The unfathomable size of universes, the magnitude of space between them is just hard to comprehend. And here we are, sitting on a tiny blue dot, the middle of nowhere, clicking these gorgeous pictures, and admiring the beauty of outer space.

Thank you for the kind words!

The scale of the Universe - both in space and time is so unimaginable, we are nothing but an insignificant speck of dust in space and time. Whenever something in this world bothers me, all I have to do is look up and that problem becomes insignificant!! Works most of the time.

Originally Posted by Kols

1. A beginners telescope for kids; I saw some equipment on Amazon but better to get an expert's opinion on this.
2. Is Coorg generally good for stargazing or do you recommend a specific location. We are not aspiring to reach your level of expertise but a good starting point. I was looking for some homestays in Virajpet or Kushalnagar area. Even Dubare elephant camp was being considered as a 2-night stay option.

Thank you for the kind words.

1. I would highly recommend not to get those budget telescopes to start the hobby. We call them hobby killers as they are good only to look at the moon and the planets. To look at deep space objects, you will need at least an 8" Dobsonian telescope which will require a budget of about 30K and also lots of time and patience, and travel to darker sites.

Instead, I would suggest you get a 10x50 binoculars and explore the night sky. With binoculars, you can spot open clusters, globular clusters, bright nebulae etc. Show your kids the night sky and teach them to identify constellations. When you feel it's time to go to the next step, you can get a good Dobsonian telescope and start driving to darker places and enjoy the night sky and deep space objects.

2. Any place far away from city light pollution is good. If you happen to stay in a place that is far from Madikeri town, you can expect dark skies. While staying in a homestay, if you can get away from ambient light you will be able to see lots of stars.

I would suggest you to attend one of the star parties organized by BAS. They conduct this during weekend closer to new moon every month during winter. They give an introduction of night sky and also some volunteers operate a telescope and show interesting objects. If you can bring your kids to this event for a night, you will be able to get lots of information about the hobby, equipment needed etc.

All the best!

[sabsubs]

Wow. Awesome. My dream is this: I don't know when my dream will come true. Words cannot explain the pictures you have posted.

[Quad47]

@graaja Great to see this post surfacing on front page...

Here are some captures after months of trial and errors; upgraded to AM5 strainwave mount and really thinking about investing in a cooled camera.
Also planning a trip to Pench national park in march.





Clear Skies !

[ram1kv]

Originally Posted by graaja

Instead, I would suggest you get a 10x50 binoculars and explore the night sky. With binoculars, you can spot open clusters, globular clusters, bright nebulae etc. Show your kids the night sky and teach them to identify constellations. When you feel it's time to go to the next step, you can get a good Dobsonian telescope and start driving to darker places and enjoy the night sky and deep space objects.

I would suggest you to attend one of the star parties organized by BAS. They conduct this during weekend closer to new moon every month during winter. They give an introduction of night sky and also some volunteers operate a telescope and show interesting objects. If you can bring your kids to this event for a night, you will be able to get lots of information about the hobby, equipment needed etc.

All the best!

Wonderful captures with great patience and diligence Graaja. Your succinct advice above has triggered me in to finding a good pair of 10x50 binoculars. Would one be able to hold them still to appreciate celestial objects or a Tripod is a must? Kindly suggest a good binocular available in India.

Thanks in advance!

[Carcrazy60]

Thanks Graaja for a great thread. Stunning photos. I have a 4’’ Celestron. Great for looking up planets.
I am thinking of buying the Canon RC8 mirrorless camera for a combination of good general photography and some astrophotography. Space .com says very little noise till iso 5000 to 6000. Kind of hard to believe but I guess it will do for a beginner like me. What would you advise? TIA.

[graaja]

Originally Posted by sabsubs

Wow. Awesome. My dream is this: I don't know when my dream will come true. Words cannot explain the pictures you have posted.

Thank you so much for the kind words. I am sure you will fulfill your dreams soon. All the best!

Originally Posted by Quad47

Here are some captures after months of trial and errors; upgraded to AM5 strainwave mount and really thinking about investing in a cooled camera.
Also planning a trip to Pench national park in march.

Awesome captures! Great to know you have upgraded to an AM5. Its a very versatile mount which is light weight, but has the same payload capacity of much heavier mounts like EQ6-R Pro, CEM40 etc. I would definitely recommend upgrading to a cooled camera. That will open up a lot of new targets with rich emissions in Ha which a DSLR's IR cut filter would block out.

All the best with your trip to Pench.

I too came to know about the Pench tiger reserve becoming a dark site. Would like to visit Pench some day to shoot tigers in the day time and stars in the night time.

Originally Posted by ram1kv

Wonderful captures with great patience and diligence Graaja. Your succinct advice above has triggered me in to finding a good pair of 10x50 binoculars. Would one be able to hold them still to appreciate celestial objects or a Tripod is a must? Kindly suggest a good binocular available in India.

Thank you so much for the kind words.

Nikon Aculon is a good choice for a 10x50 binoculars. If you can extend the budget a little more, then Nikon Action series is also a good choice.

For 10x50, you can manage hand held. If you go for any higher magnification or heavier binoculars, you wll need a tripod.

Originally Posted by Carcrazy60

Thanks Graaja for a great thread. Stunning photos. I have a 4’’ Celestron. Great for looking up planets.
I am thinking of buying the Canon RC8 mirrorless camera for a combination of good general photography and some astrophotography. Space .com says very little noise till iso 5000 to 6000. Kind of hard to believe but I guess it will do for a beginner like me. What would you advise? TIA.

Thank you for the kind words. Its great to know you have a Celestron 4" telescope and are interested in Astronomy. Hope we get to meet some day.

Not sure about the Canon R8, but I have a Canon R6, and it has a very good noise performace at high ISOs. I shoot Milky Way pictures at 1600 or 3200 ISO and the noise performance is good. If the reviews of R8 say it has good noise performance, it should be good to get.

What type of targets are you planning to shoot with the R8? A DSLR or mirrorless on a tripod is suitable for wide angle (focal length below 25mm) landscape pictures and timelapses of Milky Way. If you want to shoot any deep space objects at a longer focal length like 100+ mm, then you will need a tracker like Skyguider Pro or Star Adventurer. Also, the IR cut filters in front of the camera sensor will cut off the signals coming from the emission lines of Hydrogen. So, you will be limited to broadband target. Having said that, if you have a star tracker, you will have lots of targets to shoot.

Let me know any questions you have on equipment selection. I will be glad to answer.

[Kols]

Originally Posted by graaja

Instead, I would suggest you get a 10x50 binoculars and explore the night sky. With binoculars, you can spot open clusters, globular clusters, bright nebulae etc. Show your kids the night sky and teach them to identify constellations. When you feel it's time to go to the next step, you can get a good Dobsonian telescope and start driving to darker places and enjoy the night sky and deep space objects.
All the best!

Thanks graaja; I assumed it was easy to pick up a 10x50 binoculars but I was ignorant about the expanse of specs and models offered! Have shortlisted Nikon ActionEX (porro-prism)and Prostaff (roof-prism) and will check them out at an experience store nearby. Some binocular-specific forums mentioned that 7x and 8x models work better than 10x ones as they offer wider better depth of field which could be a boon for inexperienced hands trying to find a spot in the sky. Do you see it the same way? Thanks again for your advise; your post couldn't have come at a better time

[graaja]

Originally Posted by Kols

Have shortlisted Nikon ActionEX (porro-prism)and Prostaff (roof-prism) and will check them out at an experience store nearby. Some binocular-specific forums mentioned that 7x and 8x models work better than 10x ones as they offer wider better depth of field which could be a boon for inexperienced hands trying to find a spot in the sky.

Between the ActionEX and Prostaff, go for ActionEX. Roof prism binoculars lose a little more light to reflection than a porro prism binocular and hence are not suitable for astronomy.

7x or 8x would be too wide for some small objects like globular clusters or smaller open clusters. In the BAS group with several experienced visual observers, 10x50 is the most recommended configuration for beginning visual observation. I have a 10x50 ActionEx and find it comfortable and steady enough for visual observation.

[graaja]

Building a Roll-Off-Roof Observatory on my Terrace

One of my long-term dreams was to build a permanent observatory on my terrace. Earlier in this thread, I had documented about installing a pier and a rolling enclosure to permanently fix my telescope.

Installation of Pier and Enclosure

The below pictures show this setup.



This setup served me well for a few years. However, this became inadequate for a couple of reasons.

1. The enclosure was not big enough to cover the 8" RC telescope. So, whenever I used the 8" RC scope to shoot smaller objects, I could only cover the setup with a car cover.
2. I bought another equatorial mount for my Hanle trip last year - a ZWO AM5 harmonic mount. I could not set up both the mounts at the same time as there was only one pier.

So, this year during the off-season (8 months happen to be off-season for me here in Coimbatore), I decided to finally go ahead with the roof top observatory. There are two types of observatories to choose from.

The Dome Type Observatory:

The dome type of observatory is the ideal one with a spherical dome for the roof with a window. The roof rotates to align this window to wherever the telescope points. All professional observatories are built in this model. A picture of such an observatory is shown below.



Image credit and source: https://osterlenobservatory.com/observatory/

The advantage of a dome-type observatory is that it can withstand high winds due to its spherical construction and the narrow window opens only a part of the dome through which the telescope points. The disadvantage is that this type of observatory requires more space, and it can hold only one telescope.

Roll-off-roof Observatory:

The second type is the roll-off-roof observatory. In this design, the observatory is a rectangular room housing the telescopes. The roof slides out on rails exposing the sky. The advantage of this type of observatory is that it can be constructed where there is space restriction and it can house multiple telescopes. The below pictures show the design of a roll-off-roof observatory.





Image source and credit: https://forums.sketchup.com/t/person...ff-roof/222985

As I had to set up my observatory over my stairwell on the terrace, the total area I had was just 6'x10' and I had to install two telescopes. So I went with the roll-off-roof design. I started the project in late April 2024 and finished it in the first week of October 2024. Following were the various steps involved.

1. Preparation: Moving the water tank to a new location, relocating the solar panels, and relocating the lightning arrestor. I will not cover these works here.
2. Installing the framework including the room, rolling roof, rails for the roof, pillars to support the rails, frame to install the motor, and the geared rail that drives the roof.
3. Painting the structure
4. Covering the structure with corrugated sheets.
5. Electrical wiring
6. Installing the piers

I will cover all these steps in the next few posts.

[graaja]

Installing the Framework:

The framework consists of the following parts.

1. The framework for the main room
2. Rolling roof. The roof rolled on two rails. One of the rails is a V-rail with V-groove wheels running on this rail. The other rail is a square rail with square groove wheels. The roof has a slope towards the north to drain rainwater.
3. Extended rails on which the roof slides off
4. Pillars that support the extended rails

The following pictures show the installation of the framework.

The materials arrive.


Materials are being moved to the terrace using ropes.


The framework for the main room is being assembled.


As one of the helpers did not show up on time, I played the role of a helper while constructing the framework of the main room. Just simple work like moving stuff, tightening bolts, etc. The fabricator did not risk letting me do any cutting or welding


Pillars are being installed.




Rails for the roof to slide off.


The V-rail. The other rail is square.


The V-groove wheel.


The sliding framework is completed.


As the roof is free-standing on wheels, there is a high risk of the roof lifting off in heavy winds. So, locks are provided on all four corners to prevent liftoff.




The view of the structure from the road.


Fixing the Motor and Trial Run:

As the roof weighs close to 400 kilos, it would take a lot of effort to manually open or close the roof. So, I decided to use a gate automation motor to open and close the roof. I went with a motor rated for a load of 800 kilos. The motor drives a geared rail attached to the roof. The motor comes with a controller that automatically stops the motor when the roof reaches the end of travel on either end. The roof can be opened/closed with a remote control or using switches in a control panel. As part of the structure construction, the frame to fix the motor, the geared rail on the roof etc. were fixed and a trial run was done to test the function of the motor. After this, the motor was uninstalled. It was re-installed after painting the structure and fixing the sheets.

The below pictures show the installation of the motor.

Welding the base for the motor.


Welding the geared rail.


Aligning the rail to the motor.


Some views of the complete system.






A video of testing the motor's function.

https://youtu.be/EnV-wnDvKgQ

Painting the Structure:

The next part was to paint the structure. This was a straightforward work and a couple of pictures of the work in progress are shown below.

[graaja]

Installing the Corrugated Sheets:

Once the painting work was complete, the next step was to install the corrugated sheets. I chose single-layer sheets for the walls and 50mm PUF insulated 2-layer sheets for the roof. I chose the white color to reflect all the heat and to keep the internal temperature rise to a minimum. A few pictures of the sheets being installed.







A couple of pictures of the structure after the installation of sheets.




The pillars for the rails were also bolted to the floor and a concrete base was built for more support.


A couple of pictures of the view of the observatory from the ground.




Electrical Wiring:

The next part was electrical wiring. This included installing plug points to connect the equipment, the power supply for the motor, control panel for the motor and wiring for the infra-red sensor for the motors, and light bulbs. These sensors detect if the telescopes are safely parked before the roof can be closed. If the telescopes are not parked, they obstruct the infra-red light beams and the roof will not close. I do not have pictures of the work in progress. The below pictures show the finished electrical work.

Switchboard to connect the equipment. Three such switchboards are provided.


Control panel for the electrical circuits including the motor and the load switch boards.


After completing the electrical wiring, the motor was fixed.


To automatically stop the motor at either end of travel of the roof, magnets are installed on the geared rail. One of the magnets.


IR transmitter.


IR receiver. If the telescopes are deployed, they block the IR light beam and the controller will not close the roof.


Below is a video of the roof opening and closing. The roof can be controlled either using the remote controller or using the control panel built inside the observatory.

https://youtu.be/VssdMdXb0vQ