Our Feature Story: Dog Crapp's Kilowatts

Dog Crapp (did you know they piled it that high?) has finally come to terms with the COM ports on his 486 computer. His LX-200 can finally talk to him in the "Observing Trailer / Warm-up Hut" (known locally as the Eagles' Nest) all night without any time-out errors. The Crapp-meister found that running the LX-200 at the upper rating of 18 volts and pruning off a few feet of the 130 feet of 4-wire RS-232 cable improved the reliability enormously...

So Doug's LX-200 and CCD equipment have been re-installed in their (new!) permanent locaton in the observatory cluster at Walter's farm (known affectionately as "LCOS"). The area used is quite remote on the 199 acre farm, so it has no services. After the ST-6, ST-4 and computers were installed, everything worked fine for the first couple of nights. Then, one by one, there was erroneous equipment failure, such as the computer not being able to boot, or the LX-200 not responding to the remote signals. It became apparent that the 350 VA gas generator was no longer up to the task...

On the evening of Thursday, Oct 6, the system went down entirely -- the generator groaning and throbbing, probably in pain. Doug had added a few more electrically operated nifties (it all adds up!)...

The next day the sky was clear, and promised to be especially great! Not wanting to miss out, Doug drove the 200 km back to Toronto, picked up an 1800 watt generator that he had seen on sale, and drove back immediately the 200 km to the farm before sunset. Is this not dedication?! Or is it insanity?...

In Short

... Walter now has 582 NGC objects sighted and logged, eclipsing the self-proclaimed "Deep Sky King", Paul Markov, by about 20 objects. "Make way for the prez, Paul", Walter was heard to say on e- mail recently, "LCOS is now a republic!" NYAA icon and general sheep disturber, Tony Ward was heard consoling Paul on e-mail, saying "You'll always be the Prince of Darkness to me!"

...with Paul's impending marriage, will he have his eyes on the stars or stars in his eyes? Looks like it'll be stars in his eyes -- the wedding is set for just two days after new moon this December!

... Cathy Hall has been diligently plugging away at the Messier list this year, and now has all of the objects logged, except for the Virgo and Coma clusters -- the hardest part. According to Cathy, "Up until now it has gone pretty smoothly, but now things are going to get somewhat Messier!"

... Otmar has 3 aurorae, and a lot of LED's on his telescope, and Elizabeth has the flu. As usual, they are hoping to get up to the farm at full moon. I wonder what kind of Astronomy they could be doing at full moon?...

...The Old MacDonald Farm now has the "POWER": an 1800 VA generator that has been installed to operate Doug's astro equipment with enough juice left over to run a fridge, TV, VCR, ham radio, and espresso machine. In the midst of a recent cold, new moon night Doug was heard complaining, "God it's hard to get comfortable when you're observing!"...

As the Dome Turns... welcomes contributions from NYAA members and AstroTent subscribers. Just send your tidbit to the editor (it doesn't even have to be true!)