Astronomy

A few years ago I became interested in stargazing after we purchased a property in the country with minimal neighbours and no streetlights. My wife bought me a secondhand 12″ Meade Dobsonian. Later I got a 8″ Meade LX90 ACF GOTO scope. Then I joined the Astronomical Society of South Australia and met some visual astronomers and then the astrophotography crew.  Then I got interested in deep sky imaging.  I am now in the process of setting up an imaging station inside a 2.3m Sirius Astrodome.  Once stable I intend to remote control it.  This page will record my journey.

 

AMATEUR RADIO

A few years ago I bought a second hand MonstIR yagi made by SteppIR.  Its 3 elements on 40M (and about 72 feet wide) and had 4 elelments on 20M -10M (and is 30 feet long).  It weights 120Kg and unfortunately was too heavy for my tower.

Fast forward a few years and I bought a One Man Tower (OMT) which was solid enough to support the MonstIR, a bit of digging and 5 cubic metres of concrete later the tower was up.

With the addition of some 6mm stainless steel cable, a new Noble braked winch, a BIGRAK rotator ad come controll cables, the MonsIT was in the air.