Buckeye On The Sky (BEOTS)

I am heading to the Buckeye On The Sky (BEOTS) star party this weekend. The forecast does not look good, thunderstorms (some severe). But hey, there will be great people and great food present. I have never been to this event (I have planned on it, but something comes up). This time, I am going even if there is rain. My lovely wife bought me a new tent for our anniversary which is supposed to do well in rain. I am hoping that is the case as it should get a good workout!

If we get lucky with some holes in the clouds, I hope to get some observing in. I am approaching this as a weekend camping trip with friends so observing will be a bonus.

More scope photos...

Today I added the other two dew heaters for the finderscope. One for the finderscope objective and the other one for the finderscope eyepiece. They are all wired to the controller that is attached to the rocker box. I also velcro'd some granite samples I got from the place we bought out granite countertops. These provide nice, attractive counterweights to the back. And they are pretty low profile.

The dew controller is a "Dew-Not" controller from www.scopestuff.com that I purchased from my observing buddy, Jim (thanks Jim!) The dew heaters for the eyepieces and finderscope is also from scopestuff.com. The secondary heater is from Kendrick.

I am calling the scope done (for now.. hehehehe). Someday I want to add a moonlight focuser, but for now, the HC-2 will work fine.

Here is the view of the secondary ring. The finderscope is an Orion 9x50 right angle finder (I also like to call it the neck saver). You can see the dew heater straps on the finderscope and the eyepiece. The secondary has a Kendrick secondary heater.





The rocker box with the "Dew-Not" controller. The wires are routed down the strut (I want to do this on the inside of the strut someday).






Front view of the scope. The 7Ah battery hangs off the front of the rocker box. It powers the dew controller/dew heaters. The 2Ah battery on the back of the rocker box controls the mirror fans.

New scope update...

I have used the scope at two Perkins Observatory public programs and the scope has been doing well. I have some astigmatism going on and I discovered that the sling was too high on one of the sling bolts. I moved the sling down and it appears to have fixed the issue. The motion is a smooth as the Obsession I used to own which was my goal.

I also added a dew heating system that will keep the eyepiece, finderscope, and secondary mirror dew free.