Solution for monitoring the telescope at night

Hi Christian,

I also like to have the opportunity to take a look at what’s going on in the garden (where the scope is) to be sure that everything worked as planned. I‘ve purchased a cheap surveillance camera with IR. 
Since I haven’t been imagining in the IR spectrum, I don‘t know if it will have visible effects there but for the rest, it’s absolutely no problem.

Best,
Björn

Personally I use an "Eufy" camera. It's actually one for indoor use. But.. given the nature of the hobby, and needing nice weather anyway. It so far has worked just fine (Not sure about Dew when the weather gets a bit colder)

There are loads of different options available, I went for Eufy as it comes without any further cost to run it & store data.
And allows me to live stream the view to my iPad. 

Anyway, So far I've been using it next to my colour scope, with an Optolong L-Extreme filter. And I couldn't see any difference in the images with the security camera (IR mode) turned on or off (with 5 minute exposure). So, I don't know if it simply doesn't affect it, or if the Optolong filter blocks the IR light. Or the IR is so dim, that it doesn't affect it. I also didn't really see any difference in guiding (And that's unfiltered on my scope). So, I thought it would affect it, but (at least so far) I haven't had any issue.

But, I haven't been pointing the camera straight into the scope, and always place it behind/below the scope, to never shine straight down the tube.




As for the hitting of the tripod, looking at the equipment listed on your images, I see you're using an EQ6? 
Skywatcher sells a "pier extension" to be placed on the EQ6 R tripod. This raises your mount/scope by 22cm. 
The increased height (without being any wider) means that hitting a tripod leg almost becomes impossible, which should give you some more sleep at night.
This might be a very easy way (and quite a cheap way) to prevent this from happening.

video on it here. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=9&v=E6f2n_O95SU&feature=emb_title


Hope this helps! 

Hello again. Thank you for your answers.

@andrea tasselli 
Of course, I have to be awake to look for the scope. But it is a difference to get up and walk outside (which is quite far in my case) or to have a short look at the laptop monitor, that is placed next to my bed. The difference is about 3 minutes. And if you step out in the cold night, it is quite hard to fall asleep again.

@Björn Arnold  and @Steven de Vet 
It is nice to hear, that the IR light does not effect the exposures much. Most of the times, I use my narrowband filters for imaging. I guess, with them the effect is negligable. I fear a bit about the LRGB set, especially with the L and the R filter. I may trust in the quality of the Astronomik filters I use. Also the camera must not be active the whole night and I will turn it on only occasionally.
I also know about this extension tube. Thank you for the suggestion. But worry a bit about stability. I solved the problem in software and set some borders in the EQMOD software at some place. Also, I monitor the current of the mount with a raspberry pi. In case, the motors draw too much current, the power will be disconnected automatically using a relay. I hope, this will save my equipment at some point.

@Scott Badger 
It happened to me, that I woke up and there was heavy rain out there. The scope was really wet. There was a lot of electronics on the scope, that I feared about. But I set up all the equipment with a bit of outdoor use in mind and everything survived the shower. I placed the imaging laptop and all the dc converters for the different power requirements in a single case and I place this under my mount (having all the stuff in one case minimizes setup time immensely). I close the cover of the case as far as I can and put a plastic bag above it (just in case). The connectors are placed on the side of the case and I always look for the cables to go down to the floor at first, before they rise up to the mount and the scope. Doing so, the rain will always drop down to the floor and the water is not flowing into the connectors or the case. The control of the imaging laptop is done via remote access from my bedroom. This way, I feel quite safe.
But this adventure made me buy a HitecAstro Weather deluxe box. It is not the cheapest solution and I realized, that the software is a bit out of date, but it warns me if there are clouds or rain, can log the sky quality and controls the ascom safety monitor (only 32Bit mode). The thresholds are fully customizable and the alarm tone sounds really bad .

So thanks again

Christian

I second the Eufy camera solution. Mine is mounted on the end of my roll-off roof, so the telescope is in the field of view even when the observatory is open.  Of course, you dont need an observatory as the camera is very portable and easily attachable.

Mine was specifically designed for outdoor use and runs for a year on one charge.  I have been running it for a year with no problems at all.

No impact on subs, reliable use and it can be run from an app on your phone. Also good for monitoring those tricky automated meridian flips.

CS Brian

Hi Christian,  Fair enough.  I did like eufy because all the data is stored locally and not on some anonymous cloud.  But it definitely uses WLAN.  My only comment would be it these, I don't really notice any WLAN issues when I have both my 6200MM and 2400MC going in tandem (plus any traffic from the eufy camera) using google wifi hubs to extend my WLAN. 
CS Brian

Brian Boyle:
Hi Christian,  Fair enough.  I did like eufy because all the data is stored locally and not on some anonymous cloud.  But it definitely uses WLAN.  My only comment would be it these, I don't really notice any WLAN issues when I have both my 6200MM and 2400MC going in tandem (plus any traffic from the eufy camera) using google wifi hubs to extend my WLAN. 
CS Brian

Hello Brian,

I do not care about issues with the equipment itself and that it could be affected be the signal. It is just the connection to my Router, that is not reliable. The scope is too far away. I also cannot use the WLAN of the imaging Laptop as an access point, because it is placed in an at night closed metal case and the connection is also not reliable. Also I am used to the speed of the Gigabit LAN. The cables are no problem and I am safe.

@John Sim 
I do not say that it is safe in all ways, but I may react much faster

I don’t have a permanent set up yet but I do leave my tripod and mount covered outside and just ran into a problem I hadn’t considered… Bees making mud nests in the connection ports!….