[Lancaster] Projects and Macs

[Ken Hough]

On Monday 27 July 2009 12:23:41 Wayne Ward wrote:
> Hi hope all is well anybody on with any interesting projects at all??.
> Im still on the look out for any apple laptops / computers if anyone has
> any available
> I have cash and various hardware to swap
> Im looking for working and none working apple macs :-)
>
> Im wondering if we can make a meeting next month or is it worth again
> looking at changing the time / night or even location?

Most of my free time over the last couple of weeks has been taken up with 
building a run-off shed for my astro telescope. I had a permanent pier 
installed so that I could leave the mount and scope set up. This means that I 
will no longer need to carry everything outdoors, set up and do polar 
alignment, and then in the small hours dismantle and carry everything back 
indoors. I'm not getting any younger!   :-(

I've attached a pic showing the shed and gear.

I hope that this isn't too much OT. I intend using a PC to help with 
controlling the mount, focusers, and for capturing images. There's room to 
fit drop down shelves into the shed  --  should be good during the small 
hours of those FREEZING clear winter nights!

I've also been trying to develop some software to go with my Arduino/stepper 
motor project to serve as a remote focusing device for my telescope(s). This 
will be a GUI/window application that will communicate via a USB port. I'm 
using the 'CodeBlocks' IDE with the wxWidgets cross platform C++ library. 
Both are open source and available for MS Windows, Linux and MacOS.

To begin with, I found this to be real headache stuff, but the mental fog is 
slowly clearing. I'm beginning to enjoy it!   :-)

WRT LUG meetings:
I wouldn't be too concerned about choosing/changing meeting dates at this time 
of year. Suggest leaving this until the autumn when people are more inclined 
towards indoor activities.

Regards

Ken Hough

Note: This is my 2nd attempt at sending this message as the 1st was held as 
being too big. I've squeezed the attachment some more, so hopefully this will 
be OK.
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