ALMIRA  OBSERVATORY |
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A suburban observatory in Worcestershire, UK based on a metal garden shed |
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| Construction 13 - Internal Electrics |
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The electrics inside the observatory are supplied by three switched plug boards, one mounted underneath the desk , one above it, and the other on the pier. I had great difficulty finding plug boards that were not festooned with lights. |
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The electrical feed enters the observatory through the
floor. From here it goes to a splitter box, one flex going to a six gang
switched plug board mounted on the wall underneath the desk. This serves
the computer, computer speakers, a 2kw fan heater (not used whilst observing)
and two dimmable lights - one desk task light and one red rope light
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| The picture above shows the original set up for two plug boards, one below the desk, the other on the pier. A third, four-gang socket was later added above the desk. | ||
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The desk light is a 40 watt tungsten strip lamp mounted above
the desk underneath a shelf. It is served by a dimmer switch and is
shrouded with a piece of wood screwed to the underside of the shelf to prevent
glare.
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The red light is the observatory was originally a second hand
darkroom safelight served by a dimmer. After a
few weeks of use this was replaced with a dimmable red rope light that went
right around the observatory. This allowed for much greater red light
illumination.
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| The second flex leaving the splitter box passes through electrical conduit running under the floor and up to the pier. A third flex was later added to feed a gang socket. mounted above the desk. |
The plug board on the pier is a four-gang board with high
level surge protection. This was used in order to protect the electronics
in the LX200. The items regularly plugged into this board are: the LX200;
a 12v power transformer to power a
Kendrick dew heater controller; a powered USB hub; and a homemade telescope
cooling fan.
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Four control/data cables pass between the computer and the pier.
One is a 5 metre (15 feet) long active USB lead for the Meade Deep Sky Imager
and for the Phillips Toucam Pro II webcam used for imaging. The second is an
RS232 lead used for computer control of the LX200. Because the end of the
active USB cable was too wide to pass through conduit, these cables were run
through some square section surface conduit which was recessed into a slot in
the floor. The other two leads are 5 metre long headphone extension cables
with mini-jack fittings. The electric focussers for the LX200 and 80ED can each
be plugged into one end of these with their respective control boxes at the
other end on the desk next to the computer. When imaging, this gives me
the option of controlling focus whilst looking at the computer screen without
having to have cables trailing across the observatory.
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Last updated - 25th May 2007
Copyright© 2006-2007 Michael Morris
