JellyFishIC443_stack_of_4OIII_and_6Ha.jpg

I kind of wore out my big 100 AH battery a couple of weeks ago, so I have been working on solutions.  First, on Saturday Feb 17th 2018, I solved part of the problem by getting a new 100AH battery for my battery box as a replacement.  While I was at it, I improved a couple of minor things in the box including better securing some components and cleaning it out a bit.  Then on Sunday, I built a new astronomy power supply box based upon a 10 amp power supply I recently purchased, a 12 to 18 Volt inverter, a 4 port cigarette plug splitter, and a 12 volt locking cigarette outlet.  I did all of the woodworking and electrical work on Sunday so it was actually able to be used last night (with appropriate weather precautions because it was not yet weatherproofed).   Last night (Feb 18th) started out looking like a really good evening with beautiful clear skies, but after about an hour, my guiding got worse and I looked outside and there were some passing clouds.  But I kept going and got few more images before the clouds got too bad to continue.  So I did actually get some results, but they were not as good as I hoped.  But still, it was a really good test of my power box, which worked perfectly for the entire several hours I was using it.  I plan to work on finishing the box this week. The final part of my solution is that I am going to power my laptop in the field with a different battery that I bought online that should arrive later this week.  I am including some photos of the power box construction and the image that I took last night.

 

Here are all the parts I used:

 

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Here are my plans:

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Here I cut some dados and circles into the wood:

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Here I assembled the whole thing:

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And here it is ready except for the door and weather sealing:

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Before I finished it, I tested it out on the Jellyfish, covering it up so that dew doesn't ruin it:

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Astrophotography Articles

Awesome week for Astrophotography
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Published: 03-21-2018 Hits: 2091
On September 23rd 2017, I went to an astronomy special interest group meeting.  It was the first time I have had my equipment out since July and I think this was a good restart. ...
Imaging the Jellyfish with new powerbox
Published: 03-22-2018 Hits: 2056
I kind of wore out my big 100 AH battery a couple of weeks ago, so I have been working on solutions.  First, on Saturday Feb 17th 2018, I solved part of the problem by getting a new 100AH ...
Imaging the Lobster Claw and solving guiding issues
Published: 03-22-2018 Hits: 2042
On November 17th, I solved a huge problem I have had with guding. First, a little backstory, I have had some strange issues with guiding that I could never quite pin down for quite a long time. ...
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Published: 03-22-2018 Hits: 6355
On July 19th, 2017, a friend and I had some fun doing astronomy experiments ;-). It was a beautiful night aside from intermittent clouds every now and then.  We carefully put the ...
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Published: 03-22-2018 Hits: 6551
Here is an image of the Rosette Nebula that I did last night (December 20th, 2017).  This is 8 Ha and 8 OIII images that are 5 minutes apiece.  I was planning to collect a lot more data, ...
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Published: 03-22-2018 Hits: 2086
Last night (November 21st 2017) there was slightly better weather than the previous night, but again I got clouded out.  Anyways, I did some more guiding experiments and I did some imaging of a ...