Archive for the 'Shiny new kit' Category

Scope focuser upgraded

Posted by on September 10th 2008 in Astrostuff, Shiny new kit
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I'd been considering upgrading the scope's basic rack & pinion focuser for some time. After various bouts of tinkering, I'd managed to reduce the "Synta Slop" image-shift in the original focuser as far as I could without major surgery, and was fairly happy that it was the best that I was going to get, the other option being to shell out £100+ on an upgrade that I couldn't justify.

Then I chanced upon a bargain Crayford-style focuser at a keen price from Astronomica. After a few emails to check that the thing would fit with the minimum of hassle, I took the plunge and ordered one.

And guess what? It's a little gem. OK, it's unbranded, but I'm not one for paying for a label. Silky-smooth action with no discernible image-shift, plenty of travel, enough friction to lift the D50, and the Skywatcher Auto-Focuser fits it as well. The only tin-butchery required was the elongation of two of the mounting-holes in the scope OTA, but it was easy with the right kit.

 

 

I'll give it a thorough workout next time we get a clear night. Don't hold your breath, though - last night was the first (partially) clear one since we got back from Denmark, and the forecast says that it'll get worse before it gets better.

Playing catch-up

Posted by on July 30th 2008 in Astrostuff, Bloggers' Meet, Blogroll, Car stuff, In the News, Plugins, Shiny new kit, Site update, Thanks
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The blog's now well out-of-date, so it's time to do a bit of catching up. Luckily for you lot, I'm not a stats-whore, so I'll keep things brief and cram everything into one or two posts so that there's not a pile of individual entries to wade through. Now, where to begin...?

  • After a weekend-long posting-restriction imposed by the SGL forum admin, on Monday July 14th I was banned. And yes, the ban is justified. After some unjustified comments made by some of the admin, I reacted, broke the rules and got what I deserved. My crime was to react by removing the content from some of my posts. Just mine. No posts by other members were edited by me. The official version is different, and sounds much more sinister - according to the ban screen, I am banned for "attempting to corrupt the SGL database", which is a bit like saying that I've attempted to eradicate all life from the planet just because I swatted an annoying fly in our kitchen. Luckily, there's no sign that I'll be extradited to spend the rest of my days confined to the Guantanamo Bay facility. Anyway, I deserved the ban, and I don't much care that it'll never be lifted, but at least I'll no longer be hassled by some admins who think themselves beyond reproach and who think that they never have to apologise for anything, even when they have been proved wrong. It's sad that they get the good admins (who are in the majority) a bad press.
  • Talking of things astronomical, I had a bit of a panic a while back when one of the scope mount's tracking-motors packed in. After an online chat with the retailer, arrangements were made for the defective items to be investigated and replaced. Everything's now fixed and working fine, thanks to the great customer service provided by Adam at Rother Valley Optics (retailer) and by Optical Vision Ltd. (importer).
  • There was a clear night here a week or so ago, so I set up the scope to test out the replacement motors and to let the kids have a good look at Jupiter. They were suitably impressed with the view, seeing clearly-defined cloud-bands on the planet and seeing all four of the largest moons (Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto - the Galilean satellites, after Galileo Galilei who discovered them in 1610). After sending the kids to bed, I returned to the scope and had a reasonable visual observing session, finding M8, NGC 6530, M20, M22, Cr 399, NGC 6822 and a few others. The ISS passed over twice during the session, and there were a few meteors around. I didn't set up for imaging, so there are no pics. Since then, it's been cloudy almost every night.
  • Regarding other outdoors activities, there's precious little to report. I missed out on the Outdoors Bloggers' Dartmoor Meet because it was the weekend of my birthday and I didn't feel that it would have been right to bugger off for the weekend. Suffice to say that I got loads of nice pressies. :mrgreen:
  • I managed to fit in a drinking session with my friend Dave, who's a casualty of the recent round of redundancies at Thwaites Dumpers. He's taking it well, but there are a few folk I know from there who've been hit hard by the job cuts. I hope that they all get sorted out soon.
  • Gear-wise, I've been quite reserved about splashing the cash. I supplemented the money that I received as birthday presents in order to buy a SkyWatcher Auto Focuser from Steve at FLO, so that I don't have to faff about twiddling the knob by hand (go on, you make the puns). Even though it's not really auto (it's a motor with a control-box on a curly lead), it's a great bit of kit. Fed up with buying numerous adapters for allowing all sorts of electrical gadgets to be powered or charged in the car, we got a power-inverter so that we can just use the standard mains chargers/transformers instead. I should have bought one of these years ago - I must have spent a small fortune on car-adapters in the last few years. We had a day shopping at Go Outdoors and I didn't get any outdoors gear for myself - that must be some sort of record! Mind you, we spent a small fortune kitting out the other three for our summer holiday.
  • Blog-wise, there have been a few changes here. A few more plugins have been added, if you're interested they're listed at https://beardedgit.com/?page_id=481. The blogrolls have been updated - quite a few additions, some moves and a few deletions - if you spot any cock-ups, please feel free to let me know. I've a few more changes in the pipe-line, but I'll tell you about them another time.

Well, that's all for now. There's more, but it'll have to wait for later.

Reservoir dog

Posted by on July 8th 2008 in Making stuff, Shiny new kit, Thanks
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The first prototype fuel tank is now undergoing leak-testing.

Like most DIY gadgets, it's a doddle to make if you've access to all the bits and the kit to put them together. I'll take this opportunity to thank my good friend Nick, who lets me use his business premises and kit whenever I ask, in return for beer. Cheers, Nick!

The ingredients are as follows:

  • 1-off 185g tin of tuna flakes (this size will hold 200ml of fuel)
  • 1-off M8 rivnut and installing-tool
  • 1-off 11mm steel washer
  • 1-off M8 bolt (this prototype uses a steel bolt, I'm trying to scrounge a suitable plastic one)
  • Some solvent-resistant plastic film to make 2-off 11mm and 1-off 8mm sealing-rings (I used the flexible pouring-spout from a drum of thinners)

The method is as follows:

  • Remove the label from the tin
  • Use a trepanning drill-bit to make an 11mm diameter hole in the side of the tin. Standard-tipped HSS drill-bits mangle the tin
  • Remove the tuna, a straw's good for this. This is the most time-consuming part of the job.
  • If you don't mind the taste of swarf, eat the tuna
  • Wash out the tin
  • Put an 11mm sealing-ring, then the washer, then another 11mm sealing-ring onto the shank of the rivnut
  • Push this lot into the hole then use the installing-tool to fix the rivnut and bits into the hole
  • Fit the 8mm sealing-ring to the bolt to make a plug
  • Fill, seal and test

The good news is that you can't just pour out the contents - you have to gently squeeze together the top and bottom of the tin to pump out the fluid. Short controlled bursts, as the saying goes.

The bad news is that you can't get the last few dregs (approx 10ml) out of the tin, due to the depth to which the rivnut is inserted.

 

Right, now you've stopped laughing, here's what it looks like:







I'll let you know the test-results as and when. So far, it's looking OK.

Resistance was futile

Posted by on June 28th 2008 in Shiny new kit, Thanks
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A couple of years ago we bought a cheap 2-pole dome tent for the kids to use on holiday, it was quite roomy and it had a porch with a prop-up flap that all 4 of us could fit under. It was OK for the price, but it suffered from condensation and took ages to dry out. I had a look at it the other day and decided that it was neither suitable nor serviceable for our summer holiday. So, today we went web-trawling for yet another tent. The requirements were: 3-season, sleeps 2 with gear, one decent porch, sub-£100. I remembered that Mike Bell, AKA The Doctor, had recently blogged about his latest tent, the Argos Semi Geodesic 2 Person Tent, stock no. 340/0717, so I had a good look at his report and figured that this tent might fit the bill, especially as it had been reduced from £69.99 to £34.99. After a quick debate with Chris this morning, I went online and reserved the last one at the local Argos, and 30 minutes later it was on the lawn ready to be pitched. Then the downer. One of the pole-elastics was frayed through. No matter, I got on the phone to the shop and they said that although I couldn't get a replacement from them, the next-nearest Argos had one tent in stock, and they would replace the faulty pole. I reserved that tent and went to do the exchange. Well, the lad behind the counter must have been having a bad day. I gave him the one faulty pole and explained that it was the only bit that needed replacing, but after struggling to get the new pole-bag out of the package, then failing to untie the pole-bag pull-cords, he just gave up and insisted that I took the whole new set, at no extra charge, thus saving him from the hassle of doing the job right. Looks like that's somebody else who's owed a beer on my account. 20 minutes later and the replacements were back home. 10 minutes later and the tent was up. So, what's it like? Well, it's huge. The format's not unlike that of a Quasar, but it looks bigger. If it wasn't for the cheaper fabrics (polyester throughout, not a hint of rip-stop) and the cheap fibreglass poles, this would make a good year-round tent, I reckon it's probably good enough for year-round site-camping. The Argos ad lists the following features:
  • 1 room.
  • 1 front and rear door.
  • 4 air vents.
  • No see UM mesh.
  • Attached ground sheet.
  • Hydrostatic head 2000mm (That's the fly and the groundsheet).
  • Taped seams.
  • Tension adjusters.
  • Quick clips.
  • Weight 5.8kg.
  • Size of tent overall (L)460, (W)160, (H)120cm (I've corrected this info).
  • Size of each room 220 x 150cm.
  • Size of living space 220 x 150cm.
  • Height at highest point 120cm.
  • Packed size (H)20, (W)20, (D)56cm.
There are a few things of note that they've not listed:
  • Both porches are big enough to cook in (if you're feeling brave - the fabric's not fire-retardant), I reckon the Tilley Titan twin-burner with grill will fit in there no problem.
  • The air-vents are adjustable, held open by the semi-rigid spar or closed with the velcro tabs. A nice touch here is the gusset inside the vent, designed to prevent wind-blown rain from working its way up the fly and through the mesh onto the inner. This is a feature that the door-vent on my Force Ten Spindrift would benefit from.
  • All pole-sleeves are continuous.
  • It's a "pitch inner first" tent.
  • The groundsheet, which looks to be durable, is bath-tub style and it's properly reinforced and taped at the stress-points.
  • There's an all-round valance to which peg-out loops are attached, but there are also tabs between the fly and the valance, so the fly could be pegged out with the valance tucked away if not required.
  • There are 4 long fixed storage pockets in the inner, and a basic removable gear-loft too.
  • They say it's a 2-person tent, but it would take 3 adults + gear at a push.
  • There are many tie-in points to fix the underside of the fly to the poles to reduce flapping.
  • There's a spares-pack containing: 1 guyline with a runner, 1 spare peg, 2 spare pole-sections, 2 pole-repair sleeves.
As Mike pointed out, the pegs are heavy steelies and the poles aren't up to much, but minor details like that can be addressed (I've plenty of spare ally pegs, and some redundant ally poles which may fit after a bit of jiggerypokery). The guylines needed re-tying but that's to be expected on cheap tents, it's only a 2-minute job to fit them properly. One more thing, something that I've never seen on any other tent - the porch poles pass through sleeves on the underside of the fly. This makes them a bit fiddly to insert, especially as the sleeves are quite narrow. Anyway, it's up on the lawn awaiting the rain that we're bound to have because the hedges need cutting. Here are a few pics:  

It's a biggie. I've included a 5'3" stroppy teenager to give some idea of scale.

 

It's broad across the beam.

 

Looking up one of the vents.

 

The valance pegged out. Note the extra tabs where the valances meets the fly, they're for tying back the valances when you don't need to deploy them.

 

Quick-clip fly attachment with tensioner.

 

Loadsa room.

  Looks good, eh? It's a nice colourscheme, no?

Wassat? #2 – 3 for the price of one

Posted by on June 28th 2008 in Just for fun, Making stuff, New tricks for an old dog, Shiny new kit
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OK, time for me to fess up. Last time I was out on a wildie, I lost one of my standard-issue U-Dig-It folding trowels. Well, actually, it's not really lost, it's within 20 yards of the summit of Kentmere Pike, but I'm damned if I'm going back for it. Anyway, I considered buying a replacement, but had second thoughts. You see, I'd been tinkering with a prototype titanium version for a while, but never got around to finishing the job (no pun intended). Then I got to thinking about those times when I want to go lightweight and give the Jetboil PCS a rest. Mike Bell had kindly distributed free samples of his beer-can stoves (pic) during the OM Beddgelert Meet, and I was keen to try out mine. The only thing missing was a pot-stand and somewhere to stash it. So I came up with this idea. A digging tool, stable pot-stand and windshield all in one. And just for good measure, it fits neatly into my Alpkit Mytimug, leaving plenty of room for other stuff. It's been suggested that it could be used as a mouse-trap, but frankly I fear for the sanity of anyone who could conceive such an idea. This prototype's made from 1mm aluminium alloy, cut with secateurs, folded over the doorstep, neatened up with a Brummie screwdriver and curved by forming it around the drainpipe on the side of the house. OK, so it's rough-and-ready, but it works well enough to prove that the idea's worth following up. The next version will be in a decent grade of 0.5mm stainless steel and made with proper tools. I'm not sure if it's worth wasting good titanium on a final version, but time will tell. Anyway, here's the pics and stuff, sadly there are none of it in use with the beer-can stove, as it's been terminated (I stood on it by accident):  

Dig with the pointy end downwards. Use 2 hands. Think "SnowClaw" and you'll get the idea.

 

Stick the pointy end into the ground to stop it falling over. It's more stable than it looks.

 

A neat fit inside the Alpkit Mytimug.

Wassat? #2

Posted by on June 22nd 2008 in Just for fun, Making stuff, New tricks for an old dog, Shiny new kit

Here we go again. This time, it's a gadget that I spent an idle 10 minutes knocking up from a spare bit of ally sheet.
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